The Annie Besant Janamaitri Traffic Park set up by the Kochi City Police and the BPCL Kochi Refinery near the Government Guest House is lying idle for the last few months.
The park, set up to create traffic awareness among school students, have no visitors after the city schools failed to follow up the initiative.
The park, earlier known as the Annie Besant Park, was owned by the Kochi Corporation and maintained by BPCL Kochi Refinery. Over the years, it has been renovated into Annie Besant Janamaitri Traffic Park with facilities for real-life simulation of road discipline and road safety. The city police has even appointed officials to oversee the functioning of the park.
“The park was first opened for all children. Later, we decided to permit only school children on the basis of the request given by the schools to City Police Commissioner. However, the schools here were reluctant to use the facilities,” said a police official.
“Though there were a few children who made use of the facilities earlier, there has not been a single visitor here for the last two months,” he added.
Facilities
The park is designed like a township with miniature offices, residential areas, petrol pumps and schools. There are electric scooters and cars along with big screens to showcase videos about traffic. Apart from traffic signs, there are miniature instruction boards also. An amount of `1 crore was spent for the purpose.
A landscape with garden, fountains and ponds have also been constructed here aiming to provide awareness on environment protection. The lights and lamps are powered by the solar energy so as to teach the children about the importance of solar energy.
“Similar project have been proposed at Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode too,” the official said.
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