Corporation opens park, yoga hall for women

Tuesday, 07 September 2010 04:16 administrator
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The Hindu      07.09.2010

Corporation opens park, yoga hall for women

Special Correspondent

The park has been constructed at Rs. 20 lakh

PHOTO: S. SIVA SARAVANAN

New facility:The park with walkers' path and meditation centre opened for women by the Coimbatore Corporation at K.G. Layout at Saibaba Colony in the city. —

COIMBATORE: Of the 40 new parks the Coimbatore Corporation opened from Wednesday to Friday across the city, the one at K.G. Layout (Ward 62) is special: it is only for women and children.

Spread over nearly 4,000 sq.ft., it has a 200-metre walkers' path, a play area of 400 sq.ft and a hall of more than 200 sq.ft. that can be used for various purposes. The park has been constructed at Rs. 20 lakh.

“Perhaps, we may be the first Corporation in the State to open a park and other facilities in it only for women and small children,” Mayor R. Venkatachalam says. “While on a review of works in the run-up to the World Classical Tamil Conference in June-July, Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was surprised to know that we have built a park for women,” he recalls.

“Many women in this area had asked for such a facility because they were not comfortable in the other parks that were open to both men and women,” the Mayor explains.

Ward councillor R. Gayathri adds: “They looked for safety in the evenings and that was why we worked on this project”. Watchmen will be posted at the park to keep unauthorised persons away.

“The city already has parks for children and senior citizens. So, it is only appropriate to have one for women,” she says. The hall can be used for various purposes. Aerobics, yoga and meditation can be practised from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m.

It will be open to a laughter club and for cooking and painting classes. After a break from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., it will open again for music and dance classes and also spoken English, Tamil and Hindi. All these sessions from morning till evening will be held in turns during the week and the hall is not big enough for simultaneous activities.

“We also plan to offer this space as a study centre for Plus-One and Plus-Two students in the locality from 9 p.m. to 10.30 p.m. Two computers will be installed,” the councillor says.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 September 2010 04:20