Patha Utsav, a new weekly event to promote non-motorised transport (NMT) and road safety, began on Sunday on Janpath here attracting thousands footfalls. It provided enough hint that people's participation in a liveable city-building activity is always there to stay for long.
The Patha Utsav replaced the earlier Sunday Raahgiri event.
If you were there or just missed it, the Patha Utsav with a tag on "Ama Rasta" (Our Road) brought the idea of people owning the road and not the motorists.
The concept of NMT is about giving priorities to walkers or pedestrians, cyclists their due space though it is depleting miserably in the unplanned city growth perspectives.
Apart from the cycling, skating, walking and recreational events at stages I and II, events like puppet shows, group dances and physical fitness exercises, a stall on Swachha Bharat Mission by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to make the citizens aware on the Swachh Survkshan 2017 and art and craft activities by two leading city-based institutes Art Godaam and Art Ya Craft pulled crowds.
Musical groups Ama Kalakar Parivaar, Shakuntala Music Group and Vignanz attracted onlookers with their beautiful performances. Dance groups like Sizzlers, I Dance Plus and Dance WorkZ were also crowd-pullers.
Gifted child Neha Niharika Kar, as a Shakuntala Music Group member, performed in front of the Ram Mandir and mesmerised the crowd with her sweet and smart songs.
The Bakul Foundation and the Women in Society Help (WISH) tried innovative ideas to motivate people for betterment of the society. While Bakul brought Ollywood actor and politician Akas DasNayak to make the storytelling session more interesting, WISH introduced kids with various talents to showcase them.
Children's organisations like People's Cultural Centre and Hamara Bachpan also organised activity-based programmes for kids, especially for marginalised children.
At the stage I near Master Canteen Square, Ministers Debi Prasad Mishra and Ashok Chandra Panda, BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, MlAs Priyadarshi Mishra and Bijay Mohanty and MP Prasanna Patsani were present, besides several bureaucrats.
Four winners were given prizes of Rs 2,000 each for coining the new name Patha Utsav. They are: loknath Patra, Bharat Bhusan Sahu, Dhrub Patwari and Madhumita Ratha.
It's worth mentioning that the Janpath Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) corridor is being redesigned so that the streets would become child-friendly and in future pedestrians and cyclists would commute safely. This would be carried out under the Smart City initiative.
The Patha Utsav would also try to inculcate more such approaches as the Bhubaneswar Smart City proposal emphasises on a child-friendly city.