Stree-free park: Is a park the solution to rising stress levels of Kota students?
Kota is all set to welcome its one-of-a-kind “Stress-free park” in the coming week. The main objective of this park is to give the students, living in Kota, a touch of nature to overcome stress & motivate them and also promote eco-tourism in the city.
Despite the city being known for its medical and engineering entrance examinations coaching, including IIT-JEE and NEET, there was no adequate recreation for the student population (which is over 2 lakh) in Kota. In the recent past, Kota has seen many innocent students losing their life to stress and performance pressure. Keeping students motivated and de-stressed has been a longstanding problem and the government has been working to find a solution for that for many years now.
Being constructed on the lines of Madrid’s Retro Park and New York’s City park, the Rajasthan government is building a ‘Stress-free park Kota’ through its local self-body named Urban Improvement Trust (UIT), Kota.
As per the statement given by the Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal, "With 74% green cover and 50,000 trees and plants, the park will have amusement structures for the students including leisure trails, art gallery, egg shape Aviary with foreign species birds, amphitheater, art hill, botanical garden, kinetic rotary tower, star plaza fountain, disc fountains, plafood court, open gyms, musical fountain, jogging trek, volcano structure, Science garden, punting canals, Duck pond, Wi-Fi cyber zone, and shrub garden."
Nearly 16% area of the park will have water bodies including ponds and canals while only 12% area will have permanent concrete structures which also will be environment friendly. Wi-fi cafes, an Inverted pyramid, Food Arena, Play zone for children will attract students and tourists, ‘Knowledge is freedom’ statue and ‘Statues of Scientists’ will also motivate the students, the statement added.
But can a park, being built on 71 acres of land with an investment of Rs 100 Crore, be the solution for the tensity that students are facing in Kota?