MK Stalin inaugurates ‘Semmozhi Poonga’ in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday inaugurated ‘Semmozhi Poonga’ spread over 45 acres at Coimbatore Central Prison grounds.

Established at Rs 208.50 crore, the park boasts 23 themed gardens, including ‘Semmozhi Vanam’, a herbal garden, water garden, flower garden, bamboo garden, and rose garden. Notably, the park features trees mentioned in Sangam literature such as champak, pepper, sea grapes, calabash, Kalipada, ‘malai poovarasu’ and kumkum trees.

The park also has over 2000 varieties of roses in the Rose Garden and statues of ‘Kadai Ezhu Vallalgal’. Other facilities include an amphitheatre with a capacity of 500 people, a cafeteria and an entrance with artificial waterfalls. It has a two-kilometre-long rainwater harvesting and drainage system built using German technology.

Some of the other attractions include an outdoor gym with world-class equipment, a 4000 sq ft terrarium, a 14,000 sq ft playground for children, an indoor play area and specially designed play areas for differently-abled children and walking tracks. The experience centre building is equipped with a museum exhibiting ancient Tamil artefacts and a botanical museum.

Trees and plants in the park are labelled with QR codes and bar codes for people to know their information. For the convenience of elderly and differently abled people, the park has been provided with wheelchairs, ramps and battery-operated vehicles. The park has a spacious parking facility to accommodate 453 cars, 10 buses and 1000 two-wheelers.