Poor maintenance of parks irks residents

Though city residents, especially morning walkers, heaved a sigh of relief with the reopening of public parks and roadside gyms in the city after a gap of nearly two months, poor maintenance and upkee

Though city residents, especially morning walkers, heaved a sigh of relief with the reopening of public parks and roadside gyms in the city after a gap of nearly two months, poor maintenance and upkeep of the facilities has disappointed many residents. According to sources, the city has about 125 public parks including science parks, roadside gyms and walking tracks. Eighty parks of them were developed at different places including Cantonment, Airport, East Boulevard Road, M.M. Nagar, Shanmuga Nagar, Yogalakshmi Nagar in Srirangam, Babu Road, Crawford, Woraiyur, K.K. Nagar, Ayyappa Nagar, Mahalakshmi Nagar and Thennur during the last four to five years. Most of them boast of excellent infrastructure including green lawns, playing equipment for children such as swings, slides, sea-saws, climbers, merry-go-round, pedestrian pathways, open-air auditorium, leisure benches and others. While a section of them were developed with the funding of Smart City Initiative, several others were established under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).