No Central Park for city, but grounds to get more facilities

Your city is unlikely to get a Central Park on the lines of New York.

The group, studying the preliminary proposal mooted by the empowered committee chaired by the chief secretary, on Monday ruled out any plan to join and convert three playgrounds in the island city into a central open space with forest patches, landscaping, and walkways.

The three central playgrounds in the island city — Oval Maidan, Cross Maidan and Azad Maidan — are instead headed for a makeover that will include sprucing up of sports facilities, adding parks for children and walkways around the periphery.

“The meeting was to consider what is feasible on the basis of some ideas discussed at the Citizens' Action Group meeting in December with the chief minister. It's not feasible to build an underground tunnel from Fort to Churchgate to link the grounds. It will be chaotic and throw traffic out of gear,” said Narinder Nayar, president of Bombay First and member of the working group.

The working group, led by education secretary Sanjay Kumar, held a meeting to discuss the plans on Monday.

Nayar added that the idea to join the three grounds into one is unlikely to materialise. However, the parks may be linked via walkways to help people cross over the playgrounds.

The municipal corporation will now survey the three grounds and submit a report to the empowered committee giving details on the activities undertaken on the grounds. The detailed report will entail the area used for different activities, like cricket, football and walking track.

“We will submit the report in 15 days to the empowered committee. The basic plan is to make these open spaces greener and to update the existing facilities,"”said a senior civic official, who attended the meeting.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Aseem Gupta said the current users of these grounds would not be displaced.

The final plan is not yet ready, he added.