Amusement Park at Gandhi Bagh: Congress opposes, gives memorandum to DC

March 22: A delegation of Cachar District Congress led by Silchar MP Sushmita Dev met Laya Madduri, Deputy Commissioner Cachar and submitted a memorandum opposing the decision of construction of an ‘Amusement Park’ at Gandhi Bagh by Silchar Municipal Board. Sushmita Dev was accompanied by some Congress Municipal Commissioners.

In the memorandum addressed to the Deputy Commissioner, it was alleged that the said project taken in hand under Private Public Partnership (PPP) scheme by Silchar Municipality will definitely cause damage to the rich history that the park (Gandhi Bagh) bears.

However, it needs mention here that it was Tamal Kanti Banik, Municipal Commissioner and former Chairman of Silchar Municipal Board who first registered objection regarding the construction of this ‘Amusement Park.’ He alleged that the decision to convert Gandhi Bagh into a jungle of concrete was taken without doing any board meeting. However, this claim was refuted by Municipal Chairperson Niharendra Narayan Tagore. He said that the entire decision was taken only after a full-fledged board meeting.

In the mid-March of 2019, Niharendra Narayan Tagore, Chairperson of Silchar Municipal Board informed media that an ‘Amusement Park’ will be made in the Silchar Gandhi Bagh area. It was stated that excluding the area of current Children’s park, Bipin Paul Ground, Jatiya Vyam Vidhalay & Gandhi Bhavan, a water park of international standards will be constructed. The current ‘Sap Nala’ (narrow lake inside Gandhi Park) which has dried up, will also be replenished and beautified under the project. Three small bridges will be constructed above the lake and also the Sahid Bedi (Martyrs Column) therein will be beautified. The expenditure for the same will be carried under CIDF & AMRUT project.

The proposed Amusement Park will consist of Open Float Slide, High speed body slide, Cloud theme rain dance, Crazy river, Food court, Indoor sports, Multipurpose hall, Cricket pitch, Wave pool, 7 platform water play system, Pendulum slide, Mushroom umbrella, Boating facility on Sap Nala and some other things. Further, a car parking, Star Hotel and a commercial building has also been proposed near the Amusement park.

The Park will be constructed in PPP model for which work has already been allotted to Assam Progressive Developers Limited. The project will be completed in 3 years.

A decade ago there was a great uproar at Silchar when the proposal of building a Mall over ‘Goldighi’ at Premtola, Silchar was adopted by the Silchar Municipal Board (SMB). Assam Progressive Developers Limited (APDL) was allotted the work of constructing the Mall filling up ‘Goldighi.’ At that time, Bithika Dev was the Chairperson of SMB. She had to face huge criticism from the opposition party as well as from the section of an intelligentsia. However, ignoring criticism, the Goldighi Mall was constructed from which the SMB is at present earning huge revenue.