Chennai to have new 350 parks, urban forests using Miyawaki method

Chennai

“Currently, the city has as many as 675 parks. We have plans to increase the number of parks to more than 1,000. Processes to create 350 new parks have already commenced,” said G Prakash, Chennai Corporation Commissioner.

According to him, the green cover provided by the new parks and urban forests, which would be developed using the Miyawaki method, would help bring down the average temperature of the city. Prakash, along with the State Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan and actor Vivekh planted tree saplings inside the premises of Omandurar Government Estate on Saturday. The civic body, which joined hands with an NGO to undertake the initiative, planted around 2,000 saplings on a land extending over 10,000 sqft.

Speaking to reporters, Prakash said that the civic body has fixed a target of creating 1,000 urban forests to increase the tree cover in the city. It may be noted that the Corporation had already planted saplings using the Japanese method. Apart from the new parks and urban forests, the civic body has also mooted plans to plant saplings along Cooum river between Napier Bridge and Paruthipattu at a cost of Rs 36 crore.