Work on Amma Green Park, announced in March, yet to begin

Even 10 months after it was announced, work on the Amma Green Park supposed to be created in Guindy, is yet to begin.

During his budget speech, in March last year, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam had announced the setting up of the park in Guindy at the cost of Rs 20 crore. Officials at Department of Agriculture said that the park would be constructed in land belonging to Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board, one of the subsidiaries of the Department of Agriculture.

According to the Agriculture department officials, unlike other parks, Amma Green Park would not be open to public and would be used mainly for educational purpose. It will have a variety of horticulture plants in a protected space and will help educate farmers on such plants.

Officials also said that the park is expected to come up in the land opposite to Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board which is occupied by shrubs and damaged buildings.

According to green activists, the park will immensely help increase the green cover in the city. Gunasekaran, a green activist attached to Greenpeace India, said that government should give importance to setting up green spaces in the city as the pollution levels are at alarming levels. He also said that like banning of plastics state government should take immediate steps to setup the green park.

When DT Next contacted Gagandeep Singh Bedi, the secretary in the Department of Agriculture, he said that as Amma Green Park was a bigger project the tender process was handled by Infrastructure agency of the state and the Commissioner of Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business is looking into the project.

He also said that the work order would be issued in two or three days and the detailed setup of the park would be ready in another 15 days.