Your childhood memories of Ganesh Puja on uneven, dusty grounds is all set for a majestic makeover, complete with paved walkways and swaying palm trees.
new look on Monday. Picture by Bhola Prasad
Tata Steel subsidiary Jusco, which looks after civic amenities in company command areas in Jamshedpur, has undertaken an extensive plan to beautify the 90-year-old grounds alongside Inner Circle Road that connects the commercial hubs of Bistupur and Sakchi with Kadma.
While the Kadma grounds, as it is popularly known to local residents, hosts the steel city's biggest Ganesh Puja and annual fair every autumn, it remains deserted and uncared for during the rest of the year, paving the way for illegal vending and unauthorised establishments.
Not anymore.
"We have undertaken the beautification project with two objectives: one, to convert the grounds into another city green lung; two, to prevent encroachers and trouble-mongers. We hope to complete the makeover by February 2017," said Dhananjay Mishra, Jusco's senior general manager (town operations).
The civic utilities firm, along with the district administration, had removed over 35 unauthorised kiosks and over 19 illegal settlements from the grounds earlier this year.
Mishra said this would be the first instance in the city where a large number of royal palm trees, also called imperial palm, would be planted along an upcoming jogging track. "We plan to plant around 70 trees in 7,500sqm area," he said.
Native to parts of Central America and the Caribbean, the royal palm is best known as an ornamental tree. A mature tree, which can grow up to be 40 metres tall, has a distinctive crownshaft and canopy of pinnate leaves. A row of such trees will provide a shaded alley for joggers.
Apart from the jogging track, the revamp includes walkways for fitness enthusiasts, both cemented and wooden benches for senior citizens, decorative lights for unhindered visibility after dusk and a more than five feet tall grille boundary. The tentative budget is Rs 1 crore, which officials said might go up.
Another interesting feature will be the large reserved parking lot, Mishra said.
"We have seen during religious functions that people park their vehicles along the road, leading to traffic snarls. So, we have decided to come up with a parking space of nearly 9,775sqm, which will be fenced and can accommodate over 500 two-wheelers and an equal number of four-wheelers," he said, adding that the revamped grounds would also boast four gates for proper crowd management during festivals.
M. Kanka Rao, working president of Sree Bala Ganapati Vilas, the organisation that has been hosting Ganesh Puja in Kadma for the past 97 years, praised the Jusco initiative.
"We are happy that Jusco has fenced off the grounds to prevent encroachment. After the makeover, the place will be a bigger draw for both young and old, festival or not," he said.
