Bhubaneswar: To ensure that children from the underprivileged backgrounds don’t miss out on play, the city administration, in an innovative initiative, has converted a few neglected sites here into colourful playgrounds.
In a joint initiative by Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), the project ‘Rewind Play,’ a first-of-its-kind activity saw setting up of parks made of locally-sourced waste materials, mostly scrap tyres.
“These low-cost playgrounds are made in order to provide children enough opportunities for outdoor activities in an age of rapid urbanization and shrinking open spaces. These parks are set up at five locations including campuses in three government-run schools,” an official at the BDA said.
Sources also said that the usage of scrap materials has brought down expenses significantly. The cost of building one of the playscapes is only one-third of building a traditional metal park of the same size.
The locations where such playgrounds were created are Ekamra Vihar Primary School in Salia Sahi, Bapujinagar U.G.U.P School, Nursery School for Dumb and Deaf at Palashpalli, F.C.I Colony Shantinagar Slum and Birsa Munda Ground in Salia Sahi. As per the sources, the entire process is said to be completed within 60 days around Rs 10 lakh were spent to construct these five playgrounds.
“The beauty of this initiative is that while giving play opportunity to every child in the city, it also reduces the environmental impact as the play equipments are made by re-using waste materials available locally. Having envisioned Bhubaneswar as a child-friendly smart city we took a participatory approach not only to provide children with a good playground but also to make them realize the importance of reducing solid waste by taking ownership of their play area,” said BMC Commissioner and BDA Vice-Chairman, Prem Chandra Choudhary.
