Rock Garden will soon introduce bungee jumping and zero-gravity experience to attract children

Ranchi, June 18: Bungee jumping will no longer be alien to the children in the state capital.

Come Diwali, Rock Garden is all set to introduce bungee jumping and zero-gravity experience ? popular features in theme parks across the world.

Manager of Nerve Nope Theme Park Private Limited ? which takes care of Rock Garden ? Praveen Tibrewal told The Telegraph: ?Both the rides are being brought to attract children. In the bungee jumping arena, a net will be installed to ensure that the person undertaking the activity is safe.?

Elaborating about ?Vortex? ? the room without gravity ? Tibrewal pointed out that there is ample space (for this facility) beside the recently constructed haunted house in the rock garden. The room will be ?zero-gravity, just like the experience astronauts go through in space?.

?We hope that this activity will be hugely popular,? said Tibrewal.

Rock Garden officials said approximately Rs 30 lakh will be invested for the bungee jumping and Vortex infrastructure, which are being brought from New Zealand and Hyderabad respectively.

Tibrewal added that the construction of an artificial lake is also on the anvil.

He, however, rued that very few people are visiting the garden, spread across a sprawling 10 acres. ?We are not making any profit at present, but we are trying to turn the tide in our favour. The entry fee has been slashed with hopes that the move will woo more visitors, although we have to pay more to the state government,? he added.

While informed that most of the visitors refrain from purchasing food inside the park, Tibrewal said: ?Since we have to pay more than Rs 5 lakh to the government every year, we have little option but to sell food at higher rates inside the park.

?The rates of chips and snacks have been brought down to the maximum retail prices, and we are also trying to lower the price of cold drinks to the retail prices. If we do not charge any tax on the retail price, it will be hard to recover the maintenance cost.?

Some officials at the garden said ?a sense of insecurity? prevails among many people and that is one of the ?main reasons? why, besides couples, only a ?handful? of residents come with their families to Rock Garden. However, a senior official of the company said they were taking all necessary steps to beef up security inside the premises.

The garden was started by B.S. Mishra, the former chairman of Ranchi Regional Development Authority. The construction of Rock Garden was taken up under the Gonda Hill Development Project.