The Hindu : Changampuzha Park to get a new look

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Changampuzha Park to get a new look

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, FEB. 21. The green lung and art centre at the Changampuzha Park, Edappally, will get a major face-lift in a couple of months. It will get a new and bigger proscenium. The Changampuzha Cultural Centre is planning to launch the new floor with a National Theatre Festival in early May.

Funds for the construction, estimated to cost Rs. 7.6 lakhs, have been released from the MLA's fund by K. Babu. The Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) has started working on the new stage and it is expected to be completed in a couple of months, said the GCDA chairman, Antony Isaac.

The new platform is coming up opposite the existing one which is open on four sides and is not suitable for hosting a high quality theatre performance. The existing proscenium is just 21 ft. by 18 ft. The new one will be of the scale 40 ft by 40 ft, said M. D. Nair, secretary, Changampuzha Cultural Centre.

However, the final schedule for the theatre festival is yet to be drawn as many of the participating teams have not confirmed their presence due to the uncertainty over the timing of the next general elections, said the president of the Centre, K. Balachandran. The festival will feature six plays in Malayalam and six from outside the State.

There is some opposition from certain quarters that the new proscenium would destroy the ambience of the park and that the walkway, one of the main features of the park, would be affected.

Also, the existing proscenium and the office building was constructed at the cost of Rs. 10 lakhs released by then MP, George Eden, in August 2001 and these would be wasted. The proposal for the open-air auditorium and office was taken after spiking an earlier proposal to build a shopping complex and a Changampuzha Memorial Hall. The public protest was against erecting too many concrete structures in the area and now the same mistake is being committed, dissenters pointed out. They also added that a new stage of the proposed dimensions would be of no use unless the existing stage and office building were demolished, as there would not be enough space to accommodate even 500 people as audience under the existing design.

On their part, the Centre officials counter that the ambience would only be enhanced by the new measure. The walkway would only be re-oriented and improved in the process, Capt. Nair said.

The existing track is only 230 metres long and the new one would be 400 metres. The renovation work is being done without affecting the existing ambience and not a single tree would be cut for this purpose, he added.

Another suggestion made is to convert the existing proscenium to an art gallery. The Centre does not have proper facilities for preserving and displaying the 60 canvases that were created during the Viswakala Sangamam.

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