The Hindu : Millennium park gets going

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 18, 2002

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Millennium park gets going

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI JUNE 17. One of the longest parks of Delhi, The Millennium Park, which has been reclaimed out of a wasteland, was inaugurated by the Union Home Minister, L.K. Advani, here today. However, soonafter inaugurating the park, developed by Delhi Development Authority, the Minister urged the civic agency to rechristen it "Indraprastha Park''.

Mr Advani spoke of the need for promoting proper civic sense in the citizens as a means of ensuring cleanliness and upkeep of such parks. Also, while elucidating how Gujarat had time and again overcome crises to emerge stronger and better, he said, Delhi which ranked high in the list of polluted cities, needed to put its act together.

Claiming that development of 50 parks was on the anvil in Delhi, Mr Advani -- who was urged by both Mr Jagmohan and Mr Ananth Kumar to have the park rechristened -- urged the DDA officials to initiate steps in this direction.

The inauguration was attended by several other dignitaries like the Minister of State for Urban Development, Bandaru Dattatreya, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vijai Kapoor, and Members of Parliament, Lal Behari Tiwari and Anita Arya.

Earlier, Mr Kapoor spoke of how the 34-hectare park had transformed a sanitary landfill site into a recreational area. The 3-km-long park, he said, had been designed in-house by DDA and praised the role of Director (Landscape), Savita Bhandari, in the matter.

The criteria governing the development of this park, he said, was minimum construction and appropriate lighting. Also, he said, Rs 5 crores have been released by DDA to DVB for taking the overhead high tension wires passing over the park under the ground.

Mr Kapoor stressed the need for making the park more attractive by having reading rooms, cafeteria and libraries. He mentioned that there was a plan to extend the park beyond the railway tracks upto the walls of Purana Qila. Likewise, he said, more development was planned in the eastern part of Delhi near Ring Road in the form of flyovers at Sarai Kale Khan and NH-24 intersection.

Further, Mr Kapoor declared that permission has been granted to Board of Control for Cricket in India for construction a cricket stadium across Noida Toll Bridge while DDA has been entrusted the task of developing a football stadium near it. This area would also have a sports mall and a children's centre, the L-G said.

Mr Jagmohan said the park aimed at preserving history and heritage, helping in recreation and meeting the requirements of the people as a means of overcoming urban problems. He urged that the entire stretch from Kalindi Kunj to Nigambodh Ghat be developed as Indraprastha Epic park illustrating the history of Mahabharata in the forms of various corners dedicated to the each of the Pandavas.

Mr Ananth Kumar on his part spoke of development of 18 new parks in the following 18 months. Declaring that a bigger Bio-Diversity Park is also being developed by DDA, he said, a sum of Rs 16 crores has been allocated for the Millennium Park, which is due to be fully completed next year.

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