Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is preparing guidelines and laws to protect open spaces and to ensure that they are not lost to apartment complexes and commercial buildings. The city has only 0.81 sq m open space per capita which is much below the WHO guidelines–10-12 sq.m per
capita.
About 12 open spaces in areas such as Mylapore, Thiruvanmiyur, Teynampet, which otherwise could be used for community recreational purposes, were between 2015 and 2018 reclassified into residential, commercial or mixed construction zones.
An open space is a government or private owned land that is open to sky and can be used by the community. Examples include the Panagal park, May day park and semmozhi poonga. Lack of laws to protect such spaces have given way for ‘development’. In Chennai most of the open spaces are either owned by the government or by Trusts.
Currently, there is only an OSR (open space reservation) land regulation mandated by the government. An open space is different from an OSR land that is classified and allocated for a particular purpose like developing parks, playgrounds and cannot be developed for any other purpose.
CMDA has appointed a special team of planners, architects and researchers who will now create a guideline that will be converted into a policy for open spaces. This will detail how an open space should be developed and safeguard it from reclassification and development.
Anshul Mishra, CMDA member secretary said that ensuring sufficient open spaces in Chennai is a challenge due to various market demands and economic factors. Chennai has not been able to allocate sufficient open spaces in its second master plan. “Through its third Masterplan, CMDA is committed towards increasing open spaces in the city like parks, streetscape and ensuring its accessibility to all groups. We are also working on a policy on managing public spaces that will ensure quality of urban life,” he said.
Hitesh Kumar Makwana, housing secretary, told TOI that in the first master plan, private lands and even some water bodies were mentioned as open spaces, which led to the reclassification. “This time, we have ensured that we have separate classification for each space. The third master plan will use GIS mapping and create not just zoning but also take into consideration various economic activities of the Chennai metropolitan area will protect open spaces,” he said.
Thripura Sundari, architect, and urban planner who petitioned against removal of trees in Thiru vi ka park for metro rail construction said that while development is important, a holistic proposal that includes environment, history and nostalgia considering the green space as an important part would add more value to what CMRL and the city represent.
“Open spaces are very minimal these days with development happening at such rapid spaces. The government should step up and create more open spaces and not lose the existing ones,” said G Sundarrajan, of Poovulangin Nanbargal
