Chennai, Jul 11 ( IANS): The Greater Chennai Corporation has embarked on an important project to prevent floods in the city by converting city parks into 'Sponge Parks'.

Corporation officials told IANS that the parks are being developed to store rainwater. A total of 50 parks have been identified to begin with, and gradually other parks too shall be developed.

The idea is to slow down the release of rain water run off into neighbouring storm water drains and limit the run off in a gradual manner, he added.

The GCC will identify two parks in each zone under the corporation and those earmarked will have harvesting structures to store run off during rains. It will also have a percolation system for natural filtering of water before it goes down the ground.

Corporation officials are engaged in detailed discussions with experts in water management regarding the structure of these parks.

Notably, Manchester in England is using Sponge parks as a flood defence mechanism. The Chennai corporation will be building 100 new parks and 50 playfields as part of 'Singara Chennai 2.0'.

The estimated cost earmarked for the project is Rs 50 crore.