Eco Park gears up for New Year's: Tight security arrangements in place

Kolkata: In view of the staggering footfall that Eco park witnessed on December 25, Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO) and New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) have taken special measures to ensure that visitors enjoy without any care and don't face hassle while entering or exiting the park on New Year's Day.

More than one lakh people had visited the eastern India's biggest urban park on December 25. In 2018, approximately 1.30 lakh people had visited Eco Park

on New Year's Day.

The park stands on a land of 480-acre surrounded by a water body of 112-acre. The senior officers of HIDCO and NKDA have held meeting with their counterparts in police to prepare a blueprint.

The NKDA officers and employees will be present to ensure that visitors do not throw waste on the ground and bins have been installed. Eco park's USP is cleanliness and sweeping will be done

during the day.

To maintain easy flow of traffic on Biswa Bangla Sarani and smooth entry and exit of the visitors, a series of meetings have taken place between the senior officials of HIDCO, NKDA, police and Disaster Management department.

The new attraction is the air-conditioned toy train. The train resembles the heritage toy train of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR).

There is a replica of Ghoom railway station. In addition to the existing toy train, a new air-conditioned train has

been added.

A replica of Eiffel Tower is likely to be a star attraction as well. It may be mentioned that Eiffel tower in France is the most visited monument in

the world.

The replica of the tower was thrown open to the public on December 25.

The visitors can go up to the first floor and enjoy the beauty of the waterbody. The replicas of the seven wonders are a crowd puller and the officials of HIDCO and NKDA felt that on Christmas and New Year's Day, thousands of people will visit the structures.

HIDCO has increased the number of ticket counters as well. Police have divided Eco park into 5 zones and adequate arrangements have been made to maintain peace.

There will be two watch towers and six police camps. Several steps have been taken to avert traffic jam on Biswa Bangla Sarani.

In the previous years, there was traffic jam on the main thoroughfare as thousands of people gather on the street after the Park gets closed.

Buses will be parked on the open ground beside Gate No 4 and the visitors will not have to cross the road to catch buses. State Transport department will provide additional buses and will open five to six camps to assist

the visitors.