25-lakh joggers' park awaits opening by CM

Though an elaborate corporation-owned public park with an exclusive jogging track has been readied at a cost of Rs 25 lakh in Trichy's Thillai Nagar, it lies useless as it awaits official inauguration. Thillai Nagar, a rich locality, is also home to a large number of joggers who use the platform-less roads in the early mornings. As the roads are narrower, and filled with speeding traffic, particularly youth on speeding bikes, the elderly who go for brisk walks in the mornings have a difficult time. But the absence of a park with a jogging track has long bothered morning walkers.

The corporation planned a park on the 5th cross leading to Fort Railway Station, and it was completed recently. But it remains closed much to the amazement of the local public.
Trichy is particularly starved of public parks, and though there are 25 of them, most are not open to the public. The corporation it seems is working out a date with the chief minister's office to have Jayalalithaa inaugurate the new park.
But there is a hitch. Sources said the chief minister would not approve of a park without high-grown plants, and the corporation would have to wait for a few months for the small plants to grow before throwing the park open to the public. It is one of the four parks within the K Abhisekhapuram division, and it has been tastefully designed across an area of 5,533 square feet. That it is designed with a circular jogging track is an added attraction. City corporation commissioner V P Dhandapani told TOI that the park had been perfected, but for a few "high rise plants". So, instead of waiting for the just-planted saplings to grow and branch out, the corporation was planning to plant high-rise plants so that the park looked natural. "It might cost a few lakh rupees more, but it will be worth it. Simultaneously, we are coordinating with Chennai to seek the approval of the chief minister," Dhandapani said.