Flowers & fun to bloom at park

Cooch Behar: Come Saturday and Cooch Behar residents can enjoy a number of new attractions that will come into full bloom at a flower show in the Narendra Narayan (NN) Park.

"The state forest minister will formally inaugurate a vertical garden, eight play-cars for children and a water barrel ride in the park on Saturday," said Sudip Das, a forest official posted at the park.

N.N. Park is one of the oldest parks in Cooch Behar town, spread over 13.61 acres. Earlier, it was known as a municipal garden and in 1894, it was named after Narendra Narayan, one of the kings of Cooch Behar. In 1968, the state forest department took over the park and in 1975 it came under the parks and gardens division of the department.

"This is the first time any park in north Bengal will have a vertical garden. Also, the water barrel ride and play cars are not available in any other park of the region. Every day, many people visit the park and we hope that from Saturday, the footfalls will increase," said Das.

Five play cars will be run, four of them manually and the fifth by remote, for children.

As of now, there is a toy train at the park, along with facilities like water zorbing, jumping pad and boating.

The vertical garden is a vertical maze of plants, which is four feet above the ground. It is 11 ft high and 21 ft wide structure, and exhibits plants of different species. The water barrel, another new attraction, is a 10-ft long tube, which will be pulled by rope from one side to another of the lake, as it will float on the water. At one go, five persons can take ride.

"There is a plan to introduce a similar water barrel ride at the Teesta Udyan in Jalpaiguri," said a forest official.