45 acres of wonder: Semmozhi Poonga opens doors in Coimbatore
After the inauguration, Stalin toured various sections of the park, including the Tamil heritage sculpture grove, Kadai ezhu vallalgal (seven kings mentioned in Sangam literature), a playground for children with disabilities, a reading hall, and an amphitheatre. He also planted a sapling within the park premises.
Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday inaugurated the first phase of the state-of-the-art ‘Semmozhi Poonga’
COIMBATORE: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday inaugurated the first phase of the state-of-the-art ‘Semmozhi Poonga’, built at a cost of Rs 208.50 crore and spread over 45 acres, at Coimbatore Central Prison grounds.
After the inauguration, Stalin toured various sections of the park, including the Tamil heritage sculpture grove, Kadai ezhu vallalgal (seven kings mentioned in Sangam literature), a playground for children with disabilities, a reading hall, and an amphitheatre. He also planted a sapling within the park premises.
It was during the World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore in 2010 that then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi announced that ‘Semmozhi Poonga’ will be established in Coimbatore. In December 2023, Stalin laid the foundation stone to develop the park on 165 acres, with a plan to develop 45 acres in the first phase.
The park boasts 23 theme gardens, including ‘Semmozhi Vanam’, a herbal garden, a pollinator garden, water garden, flower garden, bamboo garden, and rose garden. The park also features trees mentioned in Sangam literature such as champak, pepper, sea grapes, calabash, kalipada, ‘malai poovarasu’, and kumkum trees.
The park has over 2,000 varieties of roses and statues of ‘Kadai Ezhu Vallalgal’. Other facilities include an amphitheatre with a capacity of 500, a cafeteria and an entrance with artificial waterfalls. It has a 2-km-long rainwater harvesting and drainage system built using German technology.
Some of the other attractions include an outdoor gym , a 4,000 sq ft terrarium, a 14,000 sq ft playground, an indoor play area and specially designed play areas for the differently abled. The experience centre houses a botanical museum and a museum of ancient Tamil artefacts. The garden has a ‘mathi angadi’ store selling products made by women self-help groups.
Trees and plants have QR and barcode labels. The park has wheelchairs, ramps and battery-operated vehicles, and parking space for 453 cars, 10 buses and 1,000 two-wheelers.
Later in the day, the chief minister inaugurated 86 newly constructed houses, designed for persons with disabilities and built at Rs 5.67 crore with contributions from GD Naidu Charitable Trust at Orattukuppai village in Chettipalayam town panchayat.
