From setting up a differently-abled friendly park to having ‘one space-multiple uses’ structures for the denizens, Bhubaneswar is in its right path of ensuring all these smart facilities that residents of a smart city look for.
Of the many projects to be taken up in the Capital under smart city programme, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik recently laid foundation of ‘Sensory Park for children with special needs’ and an ‘Integrated Public Service Centre (IPSC)’ where denizens will find many services at a single place.
Set to be one of the four smart parks in Saheed Nagar, three other parks have already been readied, the sensory park apart from having accessibility features such as ramps integrated with play and music will also have several unique features like Braille wall, sound wall and reflexology path created by integrating soil, grass and pebbles for providing unique sensation on feet for the children with special needs.
The Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre (BUKC) of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has prepared its design. All the play equipment in this park has been designed as per the requirement of differently-abled children, officials said, adding, the park will have specially designed swings including bucket swings, wheelchair swings and wheelchair merry-go-round which can easily be integrated with wheelchairs. Besides, there will be ball pool and sand play table to enable children play with sand while seating on wheelchair.
A BSCL official said the park will have facilities like sandpit and rubber flooring to curb the chances of any injuries on fall of children during play. The one-of-its-kind sensory park is aimed at creating a child-friendly city and making Bhubaneswar accessible for all. The Park is being developed on a 0.4 acre land in Saheed Nagar for which the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) will invest one crore, the officials said.
On the other hand, the Integrated Public Service Centre (IPSC) will have components like bill payment centre, dispensary, creche and community group space, ward office, multipurpose hall, library, reading room as well as skiling centre.
The project will be developed on a land of 0.3acres at Bapuji Nagar here, officials said, adding, the design of the structure will have elements from the temples in old Bhubaneswar, while there will also be window mesh adopted from Mukteswar temple, elephant motifs inspired from Parsurameswar temple.
Officials said that two IPSCs are being developed in the city one at Saheed Nagar where work has already been started and the other one at Bapuji Nagar where the foundation stone was laid by the CM last Monday.
The proposed structures will address the social and urban services needs of the immediate neighbourhoods and provide required social space for community interaction, they said.
Park for Children with Special needs
Location -- Saheed Nagar
Area of Development - 0.4 Acres
Project Cost - 1 Crores
Features and Components
· Reflexology Pathway
· Braille and Musical Walls
· Drums and Musical Poles
· Bucket and wheel-chair
· Rubber flooring
· Sand Play table
· Ball Pool
Integrated Public Service Centre
Location - Bapuji Nagar
Area of Development - 0.3 Acres
Project Cost - 2.99 Crores
Features and Components
· Bill payment Centre
· Dispensary Crèche
· Community Group Space
· Ward House
· Multipurpose Hall
· Library and Reading Room.
· Skilling Centre