For a long time, nearly 200 metres of New Avadi Road, near Gangaiamman Koil and Kilpauk Water Works, has been the subject of a dispute. For, this stretch is part of the border between Zone IV (Tondiarpet) and Zone VIII (Anna Nagar).
New Avadi Road, which connects Kilpauk Garden, Anna Nagar and Ayanavaram, partly belongs to Division 96, which is in Tondiarpet zone and also to Division 98, in Anna Nagar Zone.
With neither of the Divisions taking ownership of the 200-metre section, a park on a piece of land measuring four grounds, has been gobbled up by encroachments.
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“You make a complaint (about an issue pertaining to the 200-metre section of the road) and the officials say it does not belong to their jurisdiction. No senior official cares. In fact, only old-time residents of the locality know that a park once existed in the this space,” says V. Bhaskar, president of Ayanavaram Raju Street Exnora. Exnora has been fighting for a few years to restore the park to its old glory.
Called Kakkangi Park, it was opened in the 1970s by the Corporation of Madras on a property belonging to Metrowater.
As Metrowater wanted to lay new pipelines, the park was closed for some years. After that, the space never saw visitors.
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Located adjacent to the Kilpauk Water Works bus stop, what is left of the park now hardly resembles a public space. Every inch of ground has been encroached upon. Encroachments include a mechanic shed and a nursery.
Members of Ayanavaram Raju Street Exnora say if the encroachments are removed then residents of the neighbourhood don’t have to travel to Anna Nagar East, which offers the closest park.