Soon adventure junkies will no longer have to travel miles to the fringes of the city as an aerial adventure park is set to come up in the very heart of New Delhi. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has decided to develop and eco-friendly park on Kushak Nala located at Sardar Patel Marg. Once built, the proposed park will offer various rope-based sports activities to adventure lovers.
In addition, the civic body has stated that the adventure park will be built without hurting the ecology, under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. “The primary condition in our proposal is that no tree should be damaged or nailed. The park will have rope-based activities like flying fox, monkey crawl, bungee jumping, among others,” said OP Mishra, Director (Projects), NDMC. Moreover, no metal like steel or synthetic material would go into making the park. “It would be 100 per cent natural,” he added. The now dysfunctional stormwater drain is nearly 50 feet wide and 15 feet deep. The agency will also develop the
stretches adjoining the drain (around half a kilometre long) to make it more attractive for the public.
Paucity of land may be an issue in this well-developed region, but the NDMC has weaved out its own idea of developing every bit of its unused spaces. “We were approached by the Adventure Tour Operators’ Association of India (ATOAI) which was looking for a place to create such a park. We found the Kushak Nala to be apt for activities like the flying fox which needs tall trees and a valley-like topography. The nullah is located at Sardar Patel Marg and in front of 11 Murti,” said Mishra. The NDMC has circulated an Expression of Interest (EOI) for the project. “We will give preference to those parties who conceive out-of-the-box designs. Those who use high rope structures of non-permanent nature in their designs will be encouraged. We are emphasising on highrope structures because those can be removed at any point in time,” said an official. Previously, the NDMC had written to the Ministry of Tourism to seek approval on standards to be met while constructing the park.
“French Standard NF S 52902-1 and Standard NF S 52902-2 will have to be adhered to while creating the park. Till now we have got two interested parties. They have come up with interesting adventure rides which are unlike the carousel, the Ferris wheel and the Columbus. Hanuman crawl is a new concept that one of the proposal has,” said the official. The NDMC is currently looking for more ideas and have said that the response so far has been satisfactory.