HIDCO set to open mini Eiffel Tower to public

Senior officials and engineers of HIDCO visited the site and inspected the Eiffel Tower replica. It may be mentioned that the miniatures of the seven wonders of the world have drawn huge crowds during festive days at Eco Park. The urban park, the only one of its kind in eastern India, has drawn more than 1 crore visitors since its inauguration in January 2013.

The height of the miniature Eiffel Tower is 55m, which is equivalent to an 18-storeyed building. The work to install the elevator is underway, which will carry the visitors up to Level I and Level II. Lights have been installed and people are queuing up near the site to take selfies.

There will be a cylinder-shaped visitors' centre, where people can have a taste of France. There will be a souvenir shop where people can buy souvenirs. The most important is a reference library, where coffee table books on France will be kept and where people can acquire knowledge on France, like the country's music, art and literature.

There will be a coffee shop and an adda zone. Like the Bengalis, Frenchmen are famous for their long sessions of adda, where anything under the sun from cinema to arts to politics is discussed. France is called the cultural capital of Europe.

There will be a zone for the VIPs. Senior officials of HIDCO said they want people to come and use the reference library to know more about France.

India's connection with France has been for more than seven decades. Chandannagore was a French colony and many people take French as their second subject.

Romian Rolland is a household name in Bengal for his monumental work on the life and works of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. Rolland was also Rabindranath Tagore's friend.