CHENNAI: Children and people with disabilities will have more reasons to smile this month with two new inclusive parks being readied in the city. Chief minister M K Stalin is likely to inaugurate the parks at Kotturpuram and Nolambur this month.
The first such park was inaugurated in December 2018 at Santhome by the Greater Chennai Corporation. It not just won them a state government award but was also a big hit among disabled children and elderly for its exclusive play features. In fact the park has brought the entire community together, apart from earning accolades from local residents too.
These two new parks boast of disabled-friendly play equipment such as merry-go round-on-wheelchair, sensory areas for the blind and deaf such as stepping stones, wind chimes, touch and feel grafitti, game area and tactile markings. The parks also have herb garden, outdoor gym, table games, a badminton court and a multiplay area. Santhome park has a basketball court for the disabled.
Sitting behind the design table, Kavitha Selvaraj, the architect of City-Works, which designed the parks, said, “The idea is to cater to all senses and to make it inclusive with at least one feature for all kinds of disabilities. We have also made these parks more environmentally sustainable with more green spaces and porous land,” said Kavitha Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said they were happy to add these parks to the city’s landscape. “Our plan is to add one inclusive play equipment in every park, to make all of them accessible to the disabled. We are yet to get completion reports for these parks. They will be inaugurated soon,” he added.
