Science City to take underprivileged schoolchildren on free guided tour
Kolkata: Science City, for the first time in its history, is ready to host underprivileged school children to have a guided tour of the place for free. "The offer will be kept open from December end till March for underprivileged school students with valid documents. They should be accompanied by with their respective teacher/teachers at the time of the visit. Winter is the peak season and a large number of people, including students, visit Science City during this time," said Subhabrata Chaudhuri, director of Science City.
An official of Science City said that if school authorities or non-government organisations (NGO) want to bring such children to Science City, they would simply have to give prior written information. This is to ensure that there is no overlapping of time.
"The guided tour will be two and half hours in duration and the children coming through this mode would not have to stand in a queue," a senior official said.
According to sources, Bratya Basu, minister for Science, Technology and Biotechnology, had recently written to the director of Science City, expressing the state government's desire to collaborate with the science centre.
Sources in the Science and Technology department said that it aims to identify problems requiring solutions based on science and technology, through collaborative efforts.
A meeting in this regard is scheduled to be held at Vigyan Chetana Bhavan in Salt Lake, where the Science City director will offer suggestions on such collaboration.
Science City, Kolkata, a unit of the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) is an autonomous body under the union Ministry of Culture, and the largest science centre in India. It was opened on July 1, 1997 and consists of two facilities - the Science Centre and the Convention Centre.
The iconic institution combines education and entertainment in the best possible manner, which is in sharp contrast to the science museums existing elsewhere in the country.
