Chennai , July 11( BPNS)

The Greater Chennai Corporation has embarked on a massive project to prevent floods in the city by converting city parks into ‘Sponge Parks’.  Corporation officials told IANS that the parks are being developed to store rainwater. Presently the corporation has identified 50 existing parks and will develop other parks as well in later stages, officials told BPNS.

The idea is to slow down the release of rainwater runoff into neighbouring storm water drains and limit the runoff in a gradual manner.

The GCC will identify 2 parks in each zone under the corporation and the parks earmarked will have harvesting structures to store runoff during rains. It will also have a percolation system for natural filtering of water before it goes down the ground.

Corporation officials are engaged in detailed discussions with experts in water management regarding the structure of these parks.

It may be noted that Manchester in England is using Sponge parks as a flood defense mechanism. The Chennai Corporation will be building 100 new parks and 50 playfields as part of ‘Singara Chennai 2.0’.

 The estimated cost earmarked for the project is Rs 50 crore.