Velachery residents’ wait for a playground at Bethel Avenue continues

It is close to five years since Greater Chennai Corporation sanctioned a piece of open space reservation land at Bethel Avenue in VGP Selva Nagar in Velachery for developing it into a playground.Howev

It is close to five years since Greater Chennai Corporation sanctioned a piece of open space reservation land at Bethel Avenue in VGP Selva Nagar in Velachery for developing it into a playground. However, the facility is not yet ready, except for a compound wall. “In fact, this piece of OSR land was originally planned for a park. As there is a good number of parks in Velachery, we felt the need for a playground. Hence, in 2017 we gave a petition to GCC requesting it develop its OSR land into a playground instead of a park. GCC officials also agreed to our request and they formally sanctioned it. We also asked for facilities like washrooms, provision of drinking water, lights, cement benches and a walkway. We insisted that we did not want any court for any particular sport. It should be a playground where anybody can play any game. Because, there is already a GCC facility for basketball at VGP Selva Nagar and most of the parks in Velachery have badminton courts. But till today, nothing has been done except for the construction of a compound wall. At times, the OSR land is misused for dumping construction debris. Further, the ground has not been levelled yet and there is no name board. GCC cites fund crunch for the delay in commencing the work,” says M. Balakrishnan, general secretary, TANSI Nagar Residents Welfare Association.