chennai from june 1 a brisk morning walk through the nehru park sports complex will cost you 100 a month or 1000 a year this is the first time the sports development authority of tamil nadu which owns and runs the complex has decided to charge walkers a fee and fix strict timings on saturday last many regular walkers primarily from kilpauk chetpet egmore and surrounding areas were shocked to find a board displaying this announcement we have walking here for more than oneandhalf years and have never been charged said pratheesh babu of chetpet the number of walkers began to swell in the last 18 months after metrorail took over nehru park most of us did not have a place to walk so we had to shift across the road to the sports complex here said kamala ananth of kilpauk nehru park was always free we do not even know what the money is being used for others pointed out that no other park playground or governmentowned stadium charged a fee the board also says that for walkers the time slot is between 530am and 630am and between 6pm and 7pm on lane 6 many say the timings are impractical many housewives begin walking at 830am how can you ask people to turn up at these timings asks pratheesh babu some whose family members use the ground to practise hockey or sprint welcomed the rules many housewives just walk round the track gossiping says t jaychandran who has been walking here for 13 years and whose granddaughter is a hockey player youngsters who need to sprint around the track do not get space he says others say requests to walkers to not use the grounds after 7am when most athletes practice havent worked i think this is an attempt to keep the ground clear for the athletes for whom the ground is meant says j parthasarathy this complex also has an indoor squash stadium used by national and international level players it is also used by hockey basketball athletics and badminton players trained by the state government a staff member at the stadium who did not want to be quoted said the rules were only to ensure athletes were not disturbed there is some renovation work being taken up they money will be used for that or for maintenance he said