New Town: The chilly weather had thousands thronging Eco Park in New Town, the newest winter hotspot, on Sunday.

The 480-acre entertainment park with a 112-acre water body as its centrepiece has trumped such old favourites as Nicco Park and Alipore zoo.

Around one lakh tickets were sold at Eco Park on Sunday, said an official of Hidco, which maintains the park. The footfall had crossed a lakh on both Christmas (1,07,398 tickets sold) and New Year's Day (1,38,000 tickets sold).

The zoo, in comparison, had 87,000 visitors on Sunday and Nicco Park recorded a footfall of just about 12,000.

"Several steps have been put in place keeping in mind the surge in footfall. We have set up a control room to monitor the crowd," said Debashis Sen, the Hidco chairman.

The Major Arterial Road that leads to Eco Park from Salt Lake saw a steady stream of vehicles headed towards the park on Sunday afternoon. As the day progressed, the stretch of the road in front of the park's gates 1 to 6 had bumper-to-bumper traffic. Hidco ran several special buses to and from Eco Park.

Inside the park, families were seen spreading out bed sheets on the grass for a picnic. Priya Agarwal, a homemaker, came in a group of 16 who had driven to the park for a family picnic. "We sat down in the shade and enjoyed lunch, while the children went for several rides," she said.

The ticket counters for adventure rides such as water zorbing, kayaking and speedboat rides as well as the toy train and tandem bicycles had long queues. The parks' newest attraction, the Seven Wonders Park, was a popular stop.

Maniktala resident Priyanka Singh, 28 had spent New Year's Day at the park and returned on Sunday to explore the Mask Garden.