Shah, Joshi to unveil BCCL’s reclaimed park tomorrow

Dhanbad: Union home minister Amit Shah and coal minister Prahlad Joshi will jointly unveil online an eco-park reclaimed from degraded mines at Katras near Dhanbad on Thursday as a part of the Van Mahotsav observed across the country.

Spread on a 4.5-acre land, Parasnath

Park

, themed on the famed Parasnath temple of Giridih district, was developed in Ramkanali colliery on mounds of earth, rock and soil of degraded mines by the Bharat Coking Coal Limited, a Coal India subsidiary.

“The inaugural programme will be restricted to a few people because of the pandemic. We will also initiate a drive to plant 20,000 saplings in different parts of

BCCL

premises on that day,” BCCL CMD P M Prasad said.

General manager of Katras area mines of BCCL, Jitendra Mallick, said, “As heaps of earth, rock and soil (cumulatively termed as mines overburden) takes the shape of a mountains, we constructed a three-tier park. At the lowest level, fruit-bearing trees like mango, guava and banana were planted while an open-air theatre has been constructed on the second level. It also has a host of flowering plants and the area can be used as a picnic spot. The third level has been barricaded and decorated with lots of flowering plants. Visitors to the third level can have a bird’s eye view of the entire Ramkanali area.”

He also said a cross-section of perforated water supply pipelines were laid on the second level in such a manner that children can enjoy rain dance. “We also plan to develop a Jain temple atop the park on the lines of Parasnath temple,” Mallick said.

Work on the park began in 2014 with help from the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun. Adjacent to it is a small park named Sneh Smriti. “Employees of BCCL in the area, as well as other people living here, have planted saplings in the park in memory of their departed family members,” Mallick added.