| Kalaignar Centenary Park | |
|---|---|
  | |
| Location | Gopalapuram |
| Nearest city | Chennai |
| Coordinates | 13°03′02″N80°15′15″E / 13.0506°N 80.2541°E |
| Area | 6.09 acre |
| Created | Department of Horticulture and Plantation crops |
| Open | 7 October 2024 |
| Status | Open |
| Designation | Park |
Kalaignar Centenary Park is a world class park situated at Gopalapuram neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India.
This park is located with the coordinates of ( 13°03′02″N80°15′15″E / 13.0506°N 80.2541°E ), on Cathedral road (opposite to Semmozhi Park) a few metres from the Anna Flyover. [1]
Foundation stone for the construction of the park was unveiled on 27 February 2024 by M.K Stalin Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. And the park is opened for public on 7 October 2024 to commemorate M. Karunanidhi's 100 years. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
The park has been established on a 6.09 acre land. The land was the property of Agri Horticultural society, a private firm, from which the property was recovered by the Government of Tamil Nadu. Now, the value of the property is at about ₹1,000 crore and it now belongs to the Department of Horticulture and Plantation crops for which the property was transferred by the Government of Tamil Nadu. [7]
The park is developed at a cost of about ₹46 crore. [8]
On its northern side is situated the Senganthal park and on its southern side is located the Semmozhi Poonga. This park and the Semmozhi Poonga will be connected by a footbridge.
Different fee structures inside the park are implemented. An entry fee, a zipline adventure ticket, an entry ticket for the aviary, a ticket for the musical fountain show, a ticket for entry into the glass garden that houses rare flora, a charge for taking photographs inside the park, separately for camera and video camera are the entry fee descriptions in this park. Entry fee is Rs.100 for elders and Rs.50 for kids. [9]
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is an Indian political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it is currently the ruling party, and the union territory of Puducherry, where it is currently the main opposition.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He is popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Artist) and Mutthamizh Arignar for his contributions to Tamil literature. He had the longest intermittent tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with 6,863 days in office. He was also a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Karunanidhi has the record of never losing an election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, having won 13 times since his first victory in 1957. Before entering politics, he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir. Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai after a series of prolonged, age-related illnesses.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin is an Indian politician serving as the 8th and current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu since 2021. The son of the former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, Stalin has been the president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party since 28 August 2018. He served as the 45th Mayor of Chennai from 1996 to 2002 and the 1st Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 2009 to 2011. Stalin was placed 24th on the list of India's Most Powerful Personalities in 2022 by The Indian Express.
Gopalapuram is a prime residential locality in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is surrounded by Royapettah in the North and East, Mylapore in the South-East, Teynampet in the South and Thousand Lights in the West. It is located 17 km (11 mi) from the Chennai International Airport and 3 km (1.9 mi) from Chennai Central railway station. It is located in between Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and Anna Salai. Avvai Shanmugam Road passes through Gopalapuram, dividing it into North Gopalapuram and South Gopalapuram. Gopalapuram comes under Chennai Central Lok Sabha constituency.
Anna Flyover, also known as Gemini Flyover, is a dual-armed grade separator in the central business district of Chennai, India. Built in 1973, it is the first flyover in Chennai and the third in India. It was the longest flyover in the country at its completion. It allows traffic movements on Anna Salai to cross traffic with grade separation. The area and the flyover is named after the now-demolished Gemini Studios.
Teynampet, also Teynampettai, is one of the busiest commercial localities in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Part of the city's central business district, it is surrounded by Gopalapuram in the north, Mylapore in the east, Alwarpet in the south, Nandanam in the south-west and T.Nagar in the west. The Teynampet Signal is one of the most important road junctions in Chennai and witnesses some of the worst traffic during peak hours in the city. Teynampet is home to some of the most expensive real estate and properties in Chennai. The Teynampet section of Anna Salai hosts some of the most important Government offices and luxury hotels in the city.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi Alagiri, commonly known as M. K. Alagiri, is an Indian politician from Tamil Nadu and was a Union Cabinet Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers from 28 May 2009 to 20 March 2013. He is the second son of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi and his second wife Dayalu Ammal and the head of South Zone of Dravida Munnetra Kazagham.
Tholkappia Poonga or Adyar Eco Park is an ecological park set up by the Government of Tamil Nadu in the Adyar estuary area of Chennai, India. According to the government, the project, conceived based on the master plan for the restoration of the vegetation of the freshwater ecosystems of the Coromandel Coast, especially the fragile ecosystem of the Adyar estuary and creek, was expected to cost around ₹ 1,000 million which will include the beautification of 358 acres of land. The park's ecosystem consists of tropical dense evergreen forest, predominantly comprising trees and shrubs that have thick dark green foliage throughout the year, with over 160 woody species, and comprises six vegetative elements such as trees, shrubs, lianas, epiphytes, herbs and tuberous species. The park was opened to public by Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on 22 January 2011 and named after the renowned Tamil scholar Tholkappiar. About 65 percent of the park is covered by water and artefacts and signages. In the first 2 months of its inauguration, nearly 4,000 children from several schools in the city and the nearby Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts have visited the park to learn about wetland conservation, eco-restoration and water management. While the first phase of the ecopark covered about 4.16 acres of CRZ-III area, the entire area covered under the second phase falls under this category.
Kanimozhi Karunanidhi is an Indian politician, poet and journalist. She is a Member of Parliament, representing Thoothukkudi constituency in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India. She was also a former MP who represented Tamil Nadu in the Rajya Sabha. Kanimozhi is the daughter of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi and his third wife Rajathi Ammal.
Kalaignar TV is a Tamil-language general entertainment pay television channel based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. The channel was launched on 15 September 2007 as Kalaignar, and is named after former Chief minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi. Malaysia feed of Kalaignar ceased transmission on 1 June 2020.
Udhayanidhi Stalin is an Indian politician, film producer and former actor who has been the 3rd and current Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu since 2024, serving under his father M. K. Stalin. He is the youngest person in Tamil Nadu to have ever held the position. He has also been the Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development in Tamil Nadu since December 2022.
The Anna Centenary Library (ACL) is an established state library of the Government of Tamil Nadu. It is located at Kotturpuram, Chennai. It is built at a cost of ₹172 crores. It is named after a former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, C. N. Annadurai. It was opened by the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi. The average number of persons who visited the library between January and October 2011 is around 26,500, compared to the monthly average of 20,000 in 2010.
Semmozhi Poonga, variously spelled as Semmoli Poonga, is a botanical garden in Chennai set up jointly by the Horticulture and Agricultural Engineering department of the Government of Tamil Nadu. The garden was opened on 24 November 2010 by then chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and is the first botanical garden in the city. The garden is located in the Cathedral Road–Anna Salai junction, opposite the American Consulate, on the erstwhile Drive-in Woodlands Hotel. Encompassing an area of 20 acres, it was built at a cost of ₹ 80 million. More than 500 species of plants are being grown in the area, in addition to the 80 trees that were already in existence during the development of the park, some of them being more than 100 years old. The garden houses some of the popular exotic flora and rare plant species, medicinal and aromatic herbs. Many of the exotic plants are imported from countries like China and Thailand, including a plethora of bonsai varieties of ficus microcarpa and ficus ginseng.
The Karunanidhi family are an Indian political family who have had considerable influence in the politics and cinema of Tamil Nadu. The most notable member of the family was M. Karunanidhi who was the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms and was the DMK party leader from 1969 till 2018.
As of 2019, there are 632 parks in Chennai City, including 142 parks in the north zone, 224 in the central zone, and 266 in the south zone. They range in size from 700 square metres to 5,000 square metres. A couple of the parks, including the Anna Nagar Tower Park, are spread across acres. In 2018, the city's green cover was estimated to be 14.9 percent, up from an estimated 4.5 percent in 2011. The per capita green cover of the city has been estimated at 8.5 square meters, as against the World Health Organization recommendation of 9 square meters of green cover per capita in cities. The city lost around 100,000 trees in December 2016 because of Cyclone Vardah. As of 2018, the city's tree cover is estimated to be around 64.06 sq km. This is just over 15 percent of the entire city. The most dominant species of trees in the city are copper pod, Indian beech, neem, gulmohar, raintree, and tropical almond. The overall extent of open space in the city is 34.58 km2. In all, the city has 121 species of trees belonging to 94 genera and 42 families. Teynampet zone remains the most diverse with 68 species, and Manali zone with just 38 species is the least. With 51 parks, Adyar remains the zone with the highest number of parks in the city, and Tiruvottiyur zone scores the least with only 4 parks. The share of Chennai's greenspace is dominated by the Guindy National Park, with an area of 2.71 sq km, which covers a vast area south of the Adyar River.
The Dinakaran attack was a firebomb attack by M. K. Alagiri's supporters on 9 May 2007 on the Madurai office of Dinakaran, a Tamil language newspaper, which resulted in the deaths of three people. The attack was a response to a survey published by Dinakaran on who people preferred as the future heir of M. Karunanidhi, chief of the political party Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). During mass protests throughout the region, the offices of the newspaper were firebombed and two press employees and a private security guard died. 17 people were charged by the Central Bureau of Investigation, but were all acquitted by the district court. Dayanidhi Maran resigned from the Union Cabinet, where he had been the minister for communications and information technology, as a result of the controversy surrounding the attack, which created a rift between him and DMK.
Madhavaram Mofussil Bus Terminus is a bus terminus in Chennai, India, located in the neighbourhood of Madhavaram, providing outstation/inter-state transport services. Spread over an area of 8 acres (32,000 m2), it was built to decongest the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus in Koyambedu. It will chiefly handle buses to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, including cities such as Chittoor, Tirupati, Nellore, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Puttaparthi, Visakhapatnam, Bhadrachalam, and Hyderabad. As of 2018, the number of passengers travelling from Chennai to these two states daily average 12,500. The Tamil Nadu and Andhra governments operate about 315 services daily, with the number increasing during weekends.
M. Rajendran served as Vice-Chancellor of Tamil University, Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu, India. He is a Tamil Scholar, Writer and Publisher of Kanaiyazhi literary magazine in Tamil., He was the coordinator of academic committee, World Classical Tamil Conference 2010. He chaired the High Level Committee to amend the Tamil Nadu Public Library Act and Tamil Nadu Public Library Rules, which was constituted by the Government of Tamil Nadu in January 2022. Kalingar Mu. Karunanidhi Classic Tamil Award, Muthamilkavalar Ki.Aa.Be. Vishwanatham Award has been given to him.
Kilambakkam Bus Terminus, officially Kalaignar Centenary Bus Terminus, is a bus terminus in Kilambakkam, a southern suburb of Chennai, India. Situated along the GST Road, it became operational on 30 December 2023. Spread over an area of 88.52 acres (358,200 m2), it was built to decongest the Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus in Koyambedu. It is an integrated bus terminus for mofussil buses operated by TNSTC, SETC, KSRTC, KSRTC SWIFT and contract carriage buses. The terminus is connected to other parts of the Chennai Metropolitan Area and suburbs by MTC buses.
The Kalaignar Centenary Super Specialty Hospital is a government-run healthcare facility located in Guindy, Chennai, India. Inaugurated on June 15, 2023, by Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin, the hospital was established with an investment of ₹230 crore - ₹380 crore. It has a capacity of 1,000 beds and provides advanced medical services free of cost under the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Medical Insurance Scheme.