On a weekend evening, there’s much activity going on inside Eco Park at Tallakulam. Chirpy children, garrulous women and chattery families descend on the park to watch a new attraction. It is the newly installed dancing musical fountain and the laser show on a water screen.
Madurai Corporation has been taking steps to revamp the Eco Park and has attracted private investment of ₹70 lakh to install the entertainment facility at the park. “The laser and video projection on a water screen is the first such facility in Tamil Nadu. Even Chennai and Coimbatore do not have such an entertainment facility,” claims S. M. Rajendran, Executive Engineer, Zone II, Madurai Corporation. “We have given the operation and maintenance of the facility to the investors for 10 years and they will be paying 10% of the income to the corporation,” he said.
K. Kannan, the concessionaire, says for the laser show they are using an advanced technology used in Singapore, Malaysia and other countries. “Seeing videos and laser show on a screen made of water will be an exciting experience. We have been getting positive responses from the family crowd,” he says.
The ticket rates for the 30-minute show have been fixed at ₹50 for adults and ₹30 for children. Every day, there are two shows - at 7.15 p.m. and 8 p.m. On weekends and holidays, there are three shows.
The corporation has also constructed a portion of the compound wall at a cost of ₹90 lakh recently. “The wall separating Anna Maaligai from the park was built under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) fund. We have reused 285 discarded cast-iron pillars from the demolished Rani Mangammal house on North Avani Moola Street, giving a heritage look to the wall,” says Mr. Rajendran.
Call for better maintenance
Though the Eco Park is of much use to walkers in the morning and evening, it slipped into a phase of poor maintenance in the past five years. “The park has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes owing to stagnant water in the central pond. There is also a stench. Poor lighting in the park emboldens young boys and girls who come in pairs to stay for long in the park,” says M.Venugopalan, a regular user.
“The water fountain and boating facility, introduced in the central artificial pond, has been stopped,” he said.
The park was established in 1999, due to efforts made by the then Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi, who converted the eastern side of a portion of land in Tallakulam as the eco park. “The land was originally part of the Tallakulam tank that was handed over to the Corporation by the PWD for constructing Anna Maaligai, the Corporation office . The adjacent space was in a bad shape, filled with seemai karuvelam trees and was used for open defecation.
The corporation decided to clean up the area and with the help of private partnership, a compound wall was constructed to cordon off people from entering the land to defecate and some tree saplings were planted.
A walking path was also added and it cost ₹.60 lakh then,” recalls Mr. Rajendran.
In 2004, the western portion was also developed into a park at a cost of ₹ 1 crore, making the total area to 8.28 acres. More saplings were planted and for need of an entertainment feature, a musical fountain was installed at a cost of ₹24 lakh by a Bengaluru-based company. The fountain could spew water up to a height of 100 feet. It could be seen even from Goripalayam or Tamukkam Ground. That attracted many people to the park.
Fund crunch
“The fountain was stopped due to poor maintenance and the boating too, following scarcity of water to fill the pond. Now, the pond has been changed into a rainwater harvesting facility. In order to regain people’s patronage only, we have been redoing the park. Currently, we are supplying 10,000 litres a day for the operation of the musical fountain. We also have plans to bring a food court of international standards, offering a variety of cuisine inside the park and two more open-air gyms. Apart from landscaping and greenery, more entertainment features will be added to the park,” the official says.
However, people feel mosquitoes are a persistent problem and that the park still has scope for better maintenance. “We are fumigating the space regularly. The reason for not being able to maintain the park is fund crunch. We have requested the government for a fund of ₹ 2 crore for the park’s upkeep,” he adds.
