Open spaces to get green touch

HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has decided to categorise around 2,500 to 3,000 open spaces in the city into parks and playgrounds.These open spaces will be developed into mini parks, neighbourhood parks and community parks for development of greenery. Speaking to Express, GHMC officials said of the 650 sq km of municipal area, only a few sq km is covered with green vegetation. Due to rapid increase in population, open places belonging to the government have been encroached by civil structures.Officials added that as per orders of the Supreme Court, the land use pattern of these marked areas cannot be changed to any other purpose. Out of the total 3,000 open spaces in GHMC limits, 1,147 have been already developed into parks and playgrounds. So far, the existing policy has been to hand over parks to the Residential Colony Welfare Associations (RCWAs) or are maintained by the GHMC itself.The civic body has now spelt out new guidelines on location and size of the park. A mini park will be of less than 2,000 sq m size in midst of a habitation between 500-2,500 houses. The park is supposed to have a few seating benches and a walkway. But there will be no provision of drinking water and rest rooms or toilets as the park is in close vicinity to houses.The neighbourhood park will be located about half to 2 km distance from a residential locality and have an area between 2,000 sq m and 10,000 sq m. It will cater to needs of a population of about 5,000 houses. A rasied platform with a seating capacity of 20-30 persons maybe created for people for doing yoga and have drinking water facilities.  These parks are not meant to be used for general gathering or for picnic purposes. Maintenance of a neighbourhood park will be looked after by a management committee formed of people from different walks of life, from users of the park. They should meet at regular intervals to discuss and to get feedback from general public about improvements and rectification of the parks, if any.A community park will be a large area covering above five acres and maybe extended up to 50 acres. All aspects of neighbourhood parks can be considered for these parks. They would also include water bodies, boating and other facilities, which will focus on meeting community- based recreation needs.