The ‘renovated’ Nageswara Rao Park in Luz was formally opened to the public on October 16 by Mylapore MLA, P. Venkataramanan in the presence of a host of Chennai Corporation officials and the area ward councillor, Saraswathy.
The park has been opened even though at least 20% of re-worked jobs are yet to be completed.
The GCC’s AEE who led the execution of the project after it went into limbo for months and the GCC reworked the plans and budget for this project, said that her team and the workers would ensure work that remains incomplete will be executed in a week’s time.
A walk around the park will show up the sloppiness of super-quick work that has been executed; sheets of grass slapped on the elevated section in the east side of the park ( where a large drain was constructed a year ago) are signs of hurried work with patches pockmarking this corridor.)
Of concern here will be the effect of steady rain during the monsoon season. There are many areas in the park which will be flooded with rainwater.
For now, we learn, Urbaser Sumeet staff will maintain the park and act as ‘security guards’ too till formal staff are appointed.
Thankfully, two granite plates that commemorate the people who donated land for the making of this park from what was a kuttai at its core, and the VIPs at the park’s inauguration, have been installed though they are not the original – the original plaques were badly damaged by workers of contractors who handled the ‘renovation’.
- Inputs from Baskar Seshadri and Madhan Kumar
