Fifteen months after the inauguration of Horticulture Park in Madhavaram, Tamil Nadu Horticulture Development Agency (TANHODA) is setting up two other parks in the city. They are coming up at Gopalapuram and Vannarapettai.
The Gopalapuram facility will be named after the State flower of Tamil Nadu, Senkanthal , and the park will be called Senkanthal Poonga. The drought-tolerant flower, which is also known as Kathigai Kizhangu , is said to have medicinal properties.
“The park is being developed on a parcel of seven acres. A two-km pergola walkway, a children’s play area, an amphitheatre, an outdoor gym, and a stage for yoga are among the facilities that will come up at the park in Gopalapuram,” says N. Subbaiyan, Director, TANHODA.
With respect to the Vannarapettai facility, a heritage museum and a park for indoor plants are being developed.
“Here, the redundant Government Agricultural Engineering Workshop is being given a new lease of life and it will be turned into a museum which will depict the evolution of irrigation in Tamil Nadu. It was an industrial workshop established in 1920 by the erstwhile Madras Presidency. The facility promoted mechanisation of agriculture. The machines at the facility, which are obsolete now, are being sandblasted. Some of them were imported from the United States of America,” says the Director.
In 1948, the workshop was renamed Agricultural Engineering Workshop by the Industries & Commerce Department and was taken over by the Agricultural Department in 1958; and when Agricultural Engineering Department was formed in 1981, the workshop was brought under its purview the same year. The facility was closed down in 2002 and in 2019, the Agricultural Engineering Department handed over the workshop to TANHODA which is now turning it into a museum.
Other facilities that will come up along with heritage museum is a walkway, amphitheatre, aquarium, children’s play area and a food-court. Besides, there will be an outlet selling various products of TANHODA including seeds, saplings, and chocolates.
Further, endangered tree species native to India will be planted. They include Khair , Bel , Saptaparni , Ankol , Agar , Hingan , Bhojpatra , Salai Guggul , Chironji , Palash , Dhup , Shisham , Amla , Kokam , Dikamali , Gamar , Kutaja , Chaulmoorga , Hapushaa , Jarul , Milada Lakadi , Nagchampa , Champa , Bakul , Narkya and many more.
TANHODA is also setting up another park at industrial estate in Guindy which will be owned and maintained by Tamil Nadu State Agricultural Marketing Board (TNSAMB).
