(From top) Broken glass of the ticket counter and defunct solar cycles at the state energy park on Sidho Kanho Park premises near Kanke Road, Ranchi, on Wednesday, are tell-tale pictures of the facility’s eclipse. (Hardeep Singh)
The sun has forgotten to shine on the fortunes of the state solar museum in Ranchi for over a year.
The Rs 3.5 crore solar museum, part of the state's first solar energy park project on the premises of the picturesque Sidho Kanho Park near Kanke Road, seems to be a lost cause.
Launched with much fanfare by then chief minister Arjun Munda in November 2012 to promote solar energy by demonstrating to masses its various uses and facets, the museum was damaged by lightning barely 10 months later on September 2013.
Its guardian Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA) has not managed to repair it since.
The multi-crore facility has a rooftop battery bank, a 225sqm exhibition hall with touch-screen energy encyclopaedias, a smokeless chullah, pressure cooker, tractor and hand pump among others, all powered by solar energy. A caretaker at the museum said the circuits and sockets of the main solar panel were defunct.
The other star attractions of the energy park - two solar-powered trains, three cycles and a jeep - have also turned defunct in recent months.
' Aaj banega, kal banega kahte hain adhikari. Pata nai kab banega. (Officials say it will be repaired today or tomorrow, but I don't know when),' said the elderly caretaker, who got posted here some six months ago. 'Even yesterday, when I went to JREDA headquarters, I was told work would start soon.'
Caretakers on the spot say they find it difficult to explain to visitors, especially children and youths, why amusement facilities don't work.
Even the half-a-dozen CCTV cameras installed on park premises were out of order, claimed staffers.
When contacted, the present JREDA project director Arvind Kumar said joy rides had been stalled due to vandalism.
'Around a month and half ago, vandals stole power sockets, wires and other components, forcing joy rides to stop. We have lodged police cases against unidentified culprits and local JAP guards who had been posted then,' Kumar said.
What about the museum, eclipsed for over a year?
'Experts from Tata Power, entrusted with its maintenance, have been called tomorrow (Thursday) for this purpose. They have been asked to repair each and every problem within a week,' Kumar claimed.
That sounded familiar. On December 3, 2013, when The Telegraph highlighted the museum's plight, former JREDA project officer Bimlendu Kumar, reacting to the news report, had also promised to reactive the facility 'within a week'. So, government bosses may change but the language of their assurances won't.
Do you think the facility will be repaired in a week?
Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com
