Amusement parks remain open in Kolkata despite advisories to avoid public gathering

Amid the growing coronavirus scare some amusement parks in the city continue to remain open despite government advisories against public gathering.

Amusement parks such as Nicco Park, water theme park Aquatica, Millennium Park on the banks of river Hooghly, Eco Park in Rajarhat are still open though schools, educational institutions have been closed and advisories issued to avoid gatherings.

Though these places are open even now, the coronavirus scare has brought down the footfall considerably. Till now there has been no decision on keeping Eco Park closed for visitors, the CMD of West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd, Debashis Sen, said. So far no parks managed by the government have been closed and no advisories have been issued for doing so, a senior official of Nicco Park said. Therefore there is no plan to shut down the park. But we are closing early, the official said.

However, the park is taking all possible measures such as thermal screening before allowing entry. We are offering hand sanitisers to the visitors and cleaning the rides and food courts properly, he said. An official of Aquatica said the water theme park will remain open. A senior minister of the West Bengal government when contacted said that the state government would warn the authorities of the amusement parks, who are keeping them open despite requests to shut them to contain the outbreak.

He said that some parks such as the Eco Park and Elliot Park have been kept open only for morning walkers. A few parks where people go for morning walks have been kept open," the minister told PTI. But if some amusement parks are still operational we will warn them first, and even if they dont pay heed to our directive, we will look into the options of taking action against them, he said.

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