The shortage of funds has thrown a spanner in The Municipal Corporation of Delhi's (MCD) ambitious plan of developing a 'Bollywood Park' in Delhi, envisioned to showcase the history of Indian cinema and its evolution through artefacts made of waste materials, official sources said.
MCD plans to construct a 'Bollywood Park' in Jangpura in south Delhi on lines of its popular ‘Waste-to-Wonder’ park where scrap material has been used to erect replicas of the 'seven wonders of the world.'
According to official sources, by now the tenders for the construction and design outlay of the park should have been floated, but there has been "no progress" on the project because of the fund crunch.
"Lack of funds is a major issue which is blocking the construction of the Bollywood Park. The project is not getting funds, so the progress on it has completely stopped for now,” an official source told PTI.
“In normal situations, tenders for the project would have been floated and other modalities of the project would have also been completed," the source said.
The ‘Bollywood Park’ has been planned to be built at a cost of Rs 25 crore, out of which Rs 4 crore will be for maintenance and operation of the park. The proposal to build the park was approved by the erstwhile South Delhi Municipal Corporation -- before it got subsumed in a single MCD, in its standing committee meeting in January this year.
The official said that funds are being arranged to start some work and keep the ball rolling on the project.
"It will take at least six to eight months to build the park after the work commences on ground. So we are trying to arrange some funds to avoid any further delay in the project," he said.
Another MCD source said that the civic body's priority, for now, is to pay the salaries of its employees on time, and then focus on other projects, such as those related to entertainment and recreational activities.
The ‘Bollywood Park’ will be a theme park and was to be built in an area measuring around five acres in an old park in Jangpura.
According to the civic officials, the Park will be unique in that it will have on display the evolution of Indian cinema beginning with Raja Harishchandra, the first Indian movie, to contemporary films, in the form of artwork.
They said that along with Hindi cinema, the MCD will also try to showcase the history of other language cinema as well.
Scenes of popular movies, songs, cut-outs of actors etc will be displayed in the park through replicas.
All the replicas related to Indian cinema in the park will be made through scrap materials such as iron rods, nuts and bolts, fans, wires, pipes, etc.
[With Inputs From PTI]
