HIDCO to build garden of 7 senses in New Town for kids

The country's first garden of seven senses for children is coming up at New Town.

In addition to the five senses namely, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, there will be a proprioception (sense of position) gallery and vestibular (sense of balance and movement) gallery. In Delhi, there is a garden of five senses but proprioception and vestibule zones are not there, said a senior official of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO).

The garden of senses will come up on a three-acre land near Pancha More opposite Eco Park.

Welcoming HIDCO's move to set up the garden of senses Paramita Basu, a noted psychiatrist said in the present age when most of the children are busy playing with computers from a very early age, a place that will help children to improve their faculty through games is of great importance.

A design competition was organised by New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) and a selection committee was formed comprising the chief architect of NKDA, chief planner HIDCO and chief engineer NKDA. A series of presentations were viewed and discussed at length. Anindia Bose and Associates that stood first in the competition which was based on Quality Cum Cost Based Selection (QCBS) process has been entrusted with the job.

Debashis Sen, chairman, HIDCO said touch zones will be one among the seven zones. The children will have to excavate sand to find out plastic fossil and this will help children to develop their faculty.

The children's corner in Eco Park is one of the most

popular zone and HIDCO authorities find it difficult to accommodate them on holidays and on special days. It may be mentioned that Eco Park has so far recorded a footfall of over 75 lakh since its inception in 2012.

New Town will open a park for the specially-abled children, the one-of-its-kind in the country. There will be games for visually impaired and physically challenged children.

There is a senior citizen's park and a pet corner in New Town. A park depicting various characters of Satyajit Ray's famous movie Sonar Kella has also come up in New Town. HIDCO has taken several steps to increase the green cover in New Town too for making it a greener and cleaner city.