Summary:
This raises the question on whether the main planning authority of the city, Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) is making Chennai more and more of a concrete jungle by cutting down such green spaces. The CMDA said between 2015 and 2018, 11 such open space and recreational lands have been reclassified by CMDA, enabling huge gated communities and shops to be constructed on such spaces. One such example is the construction of a gated community on 160 acres of open space recreational land near Thiruvanmiyur MRTS station. Along Loop Road at Nochikuppam in Santhome, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board has built a tenement for the fisherfolk on three acres of recreational land. In an already thickly populated area like Mylapore, 5.3 areas of recreational space was converted into a mixed residential zone by CMDA in 2018..