The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is giving a popular football ground in Mathur MMDA Colony a brilliant, multi-purpose makeover. They’re transforming it into a ‘sponge park’—a first-of-its-kind project designed to fight flooding while giving the community a fantastic new space for sports and relaxation.
So, what exactly is a sponge park? Imagine a state-of-the-art football pitch and a kabaddi court built right on top of huge underground tanks. This innovative setup will capture and store a massive 12 lakh litres of stormwater when it rains, acting like a sponge to prevent waterlogging in the area. Above ground, residents will enjoy a brand new jogging track and tiered seating, making it a perfect year-round hub for fitness and fun.
This isn’t a small project. Covering nearly 1.9 acres, the ₹8.06 crore initiative is a major part of Chennai’s flood mitigation strategy. Work began on July 24 and is expected to wrap up within a year.
The Mathur park is actually the latest step in the GCC’s smart plan to use rainwater harvesting technology across the city. They’ve already successfully installed large underground storage tanks in eight other playgrounds and smaller tanks in hundreds of local parks. The results speak for themselves—areas with these tanks reported no waterlogging during recent heavy rains.
Buoyed by this success, the corporation is scaling up. Similar projects are planned for thousands of public spaces in the Kosasthalaiyar and Kovalam basins, with funding from international partners like the Asian Development Bank.
The Mathur sponge park is being seen as a flagship model for the future. By combining crucial flood resilience with much-needed recreational facilities, the GCC is creating a blueprint for how cities can develop smart, dual-purpose infrastructure that benefits everyone. If this project is a success, we can expect to see many more such sponge parks popping up in other flood-prone neighborhoods across Chennai.
