City’s only Oxygen Park is gasping for life and has become a place for tipplers, who outrage the sanctity of the place with their activities as the area becomes quiet after sunset and ransack the place in whatever manner they deem fit in the inebriated state. The development of the park situated at Morhabadi is running slightly behind schedule.
Foundation stone for the park was placed by the then Chief Minister Hemant Soren and a plaque was put up with the hope to increase the level of Oxygen in the area in future. However, as fortification of the area started from one side, drunkards started razing it from other and the piece of stone embossed with timeline to mark the beginning of the history of the park is laying shattered and spread everywhere with no one to care about.
“It was ok until few days back. I had examined it about 10 to 15 days back. I will have that checked,” said Divisional Forest Officer, Rl Bakshi. The park as it stands on Saturday barely gives a hint of what is likely to come up and is safe haven for drunkards with no one to question them for their behaviour.
The park is being constructed by Forest department, however, construction work seems to have stopped due to institutional hurdles. The park spread in 11 acres has a boundary of concrete and steel frames on one side whereas the other sides still lay open. The department claims that the work will start in a matter of few days after obtaining fresh sanctions from State Government. However, estimates are likely to be revised because of the delay and the fresh estimates are likely to be around Rs45 lakh. “Work was stopped because fund was not sanctioned. Now, we will get the fund sanctioned and work will start in 10 to 15 days,” maintained Bakshi.
The park of its only kind was estimated to come up at a cost of Rs8.5 crore and was scheduled to feature landscaped gardens, tiled pathways, an amphitheatre, galleries, sports facilities and much more and was likely to be completed by 2016. Other striking features are a medicinal park, aquatic garden, children’s zone, water cascades and fountains. However, minute changes in the landscape are on the cards. “We talked to specialists and they have suggested some changes based on the directions, but the changes are too minute in nature,” added the DFO.