Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Sponsors to give facelift to parks

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 13. The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation is working out a two-pronged scheme to renovate and beautify the public parks and traffic islands in the city. While about a dozen parks will be revived with the help of private sponsors, the rest will be taken up by the civic body itself.

Several private firms had come forward to repair and maintain the parks. According to the agreement which is being worked out, the sponsoring firm will have to bear the expenses for illumination, security and maintenance of the park in return for advertisement rights for a period of three years.

Corporation officials said the agreement would insist on unobtrusive advertisements without marring the beauty of the park. Tall plants which hinder road view will not be permitted on traffic islands. The renovation project for each park will be subject to the final approval of the Corporation.

The parks to be brought under the sponsorship programme in the first phase include the Ayyankali park at Vellayambalam, the traffic islands at the Women's College junction, Sree Moolam Club junction, Museum junction, VJT hall junction, Panavila junction and Bakery junction, the General Hospital park, Barton Hill park, Kuravankonam park and Priyadarsini park.

The Gandhi Park at East Fort will be handed over to the Tourism Department for beautification. The scheme involves the construction of a stage at one end and a walk-way between the lawns on either side. A kiosk will be set up in the neighbouring Pattom Thanu Pillai park.

The Mayor, J. Chandra, said the Gandhi Park would be handed back to the Corporation for maintenance after the renovation work. "It will continue to be used as a venue for public meetings,'' she said.

The sponsorship programme was initially mooted in the Corporation's budget for the year 2000-2001 which had earmarked an amount of Rs.1 crore for renovation of 27 public parks in the city. But the project was eventually derailed by transition problems following the mid-budget elections to the council.

The Town Planning Committee was forced to seek the sponsorship route since the Corporation was hamstrung by the lack of adequate manpower for maintenance. Most of the public parks in the city are characterised by bare, withered lawns, broken benches, overgrown shrubs and damaged fences.

Two of the most prominent public parks present a pitiable sight. The Ponnara Sreedhar park at Thampanoor which was handed over to the KSEB for cabling has remained dug up for months. The Mayor has convened a meeting of KSEB officials to expedite the work and complete it on a war-footing.

The sprawling Sreekanteswaram park is another green lung which has remained neglected for years. The 1996-97 Corporation budget had a proposal to set up a medicinal plant garden at the park but the herbarium remains on paper. The renovation of this park will be taken up by the Corporation. Moves are on to remove the encroachments and construct a boundary wall.

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