Bokaro: Come this Sunday and the main road between Bokaro Mall and Ghandhi Chowk will turn into traffic-free playground for two hours beginning 7.30 a.m. The Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL) is all set to give the residents a different experience of streets as safe place for fun and relaxed gathering.
In order to promote healthy lifestyle, Bokaro will have “Happy Street” on Sundays. The organiser is Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL) management. The Happy Street concept is not new. Several cities across India including Kolkata, Pune, Thane, Ahmedabad have been successfully implementing it. This is the first such initiative in Bokaro.
“A stretch from Bokaro Mall to Gandhi Chowk will be closed for traffic between 7:30 am and 9:30 am on Sunday mornings beginning November 27 so that the residents can take a walk, jog, play and take part in other outdoor activities,” Manikant Dhan, BSL’s chief of communications, told TOI on Wednesday.
Dhan said the initiative was planned after Bokaro earned the status of global active city recently. Through this initiative, the BSL management is motivating its employees, officers as well as residents of Bokaro to stay active and healthy. BSL management has formed a committee that is working on the project.
Meanwhile, Bokaro Steel City has been honoured with the Global Active City (GAC) label. It has emerged as the first city in India and second in Asia to get the honour. The GAC label, supported by the International Olympic Committee, is awarded to cities having implemented a physical activity and sport for all management system, improving governance and efficiency.
Bokaro has got the status of the country’s first Global Active Partner City. In this background, with the aim of promoting fitness and sports among the general public, the following initiatives are being taken up in the BSL township area:
> A total of 30 playgrounds are being built in different sectors, out of which work is going on in 15 playgrounds, work on the remaining grounds will also start soon.
> Keeping health and fitness in mind, some programs are being organized at regular intervals, in which the main thing is to ensure public participation. Under this, Yoga for Citizens and Cycle Rally have been organized in the past months in which a large number of people participated.
>Taking this campaign forward, on November 27, the road from Gandhi Chowk to Bokaro Mall will be closed for one-way traffic for two hours in the morning and a campaign called Happy Street will be launched in Bokaro. In the inauguration program of Happy Street, various schools, Rotary Club, Lions Club, other social organizations, CISF, JAP etc have also been invited along with public representatives and high officials of BSL and administration.
> The purpose is that people can do jogging, cycling or fitness-related activities every Sunday morning between Gandhi Chowk to Patthar Katta Chowk.
> Sand artists and other local artists are also being invited in the inaugural programme.
> Under the Global Active Partner City campaign, a half marathon will also be organized in Bokaro in the month of January.
