Christmas sees significant footfall at New Town’s major attractions

New Town is coming up fast as a major tourist attraction in the state, with over one lakh people visiting different venues on the Christmas Day.

When the Trinamool Congress government came to power in the state in 2011, New Town was a near-barren area with hectic construction work going on in several parts. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took special interest in developing the satellite city and in the last five years it has become one of the top tourist attractions in the state.

The children’s park and senior citizen’s park are popular destinations in the city and New Town is also coming up as a major cultural hub. During the Christmas festivities, Nazrul Tirtha recently recorded footfall of 1,997 people, the highest ever at the cultural complex. The Mother’s Wax museum, the only one of its kind in the state, recorded a 3,444 footfall, its highest ever. The second phase of the museum has become very popular and on Saturdays and holidays the number of visitors goes up significantly.

The Eco Park, known as Prakriti Tirtha, which was renamed by Mamata Banerjee, recorded a footfall of 99,689, which was the highest in the year 2016. Only on January 1 was the footfall higher, when it went over one lakh. Eighteen ticket counters were set up at Eco Park and two in Mother’s Wax Museum.

The USP of Eco Park is its cleanliness and a visit to the area Monday morning revealed that conservancy workers were involved in cleaning the area since early morning. Not a single plastic bottle or empty tea cup was found on the roads around.

Moreover, people are rarely seen littering outside and the offenders are fined Rs 100. Six extra toilets have been installed to keep the area free of open defecation. Inside the Eco Park arena – which includes several gardens and a water body, covering areaa of 480 acre and 104 acres respectively – tight vigil has been put in place to dissuade people from throw tea cups or food packets on the ground. Sufficient quantities of waste bins have been kept in the arena to keep the area clean.