Reminiscent of Nek Chand’s Rock Garden who secretly started creating it in 1957 with concrete, home-made and discarded material, the first-of-its-kind scrap park, has come up six decades later in Chandigarh.
Christened as the “Waste-to-Wonder” Park, it is sedately nestled in Sector 48 with rows upon rows of housing society homes, offering a commanding view. The park was dedicated to the public by Mayor Anup Gupta on April 14.
Spread over a sprawling 1.75 acre of prime land, the “Waste-to-Wonder” park, a speactacle for kids especially, houses scintillating structures made out of industrial waste and other discarded material, including iron sheets, rods, tyre rims, fans, auto parts and so on. The imposing scrap images have been created out of the recycled waste with a razor-sharp precision, which speaks volumes of the magical hands which created them.
The entry gates to the park and benches placed in order there have been sculpted out of the recycled waste. Even the edges of plant and flower beds have been made out of the discarded bricks sourced from the Corporation’s Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste plant. A snakes and ladders board has been thrown up for the teeny-weeny tribe indulging in sheer fun-n-frolic. Swings and other fun games are there to keep them charged with excitement.
An imposing 18-foot-tall sculpture of a Modulor Man by the master architect Le Corbusier himself, towards the rear of the sprawling park extends a warm welcome to the visiting guests. Another sculpture made of an outdoor metals lighting tower, which is flanked by a finely chiselled sculpture of the stone family among others, including some robotic images, dotting the park, leaving the visiting guests entranced.
This spectacular landmark, the brain child of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC), was conceptualised on the idea of three Rs – reduce, recycle and reuse – the waste-to-wonder park was created under the innovative ‘Garbage Free City Mission’.
“This is yet another path-breaking initiative of the CMC to give a fillip to the flagship Swachhata mission spearheaded by the central government,” says the mayor.
Offering suggestions to make it better, one of the visitors, Shivani, a Maths teacher at a leading Chandigarh school, says, “It feels good to be here offering a divine moment amid all-pervading serenity and solitude. The dispensation needs to focus on adding more greenery to the place exuding paradisiacal ambience. Public facilities also need to be put in place to make it a must visit place for visitors.”
(The writer , Ramesh K Dhiman, is a former staffer of The Tribune and freelance writer. He has written extensively for leading newspapers and magazines on art, culture, mythology, besides travelogues.)
