Chennai: With over 500 visitors on weekdays and about 1,500 on weekends, the Chetpet eco-park welcomes the crowd with its beautiful landscape and pleasant breeze, away from all the urbanization around the area. Adding to its features, the eco-park will soon offer virtual reality and augmented reality experiences, while a new aquarium is under construction at the park and will be opened for public in next six months.
“A 600sqm solar powered complex will have a virtual reality (VR) theatre, augmented reality (AR) dome and an aquarium, which is nearing completion. The VR and AR experiences will focus on nature, providing insights of natural ecosystems such as forests or underwater world with a single programme for about 20 to 30 minutes duration. The Aquarium will have three salt water and fresh water tanks each,” said officials of the Department of Fisheries, the department that maintains the park.
The officials at the park say that the boating facility was a major attraction at the time when it was opened, the new initiative of introducing the aquarium and VR theatre is expected to boost the number of visitors coming to the park daily.
The 42 crore rupees project of Chetpet eco-park was opened in 2016 and has a separate angling pond that is 11 feet deep and facilitates activities like fishing, boating. This pond is maintained with imported aerators, which provide dissolved oxygen for fishes.
“Sweltering heat in the city plays an evil role as the water levels go down, which is usually about 4 feet and causes the water from the angling pond to be diverted to the lake. Otherwise, the water levels are solely dependent on the rains the city receives every year. The lake is naturally maintained by dust-sucking fishes, which are made to coexist with the rest of the ecosystem,” said lake management personnel of the eco-park.
With other facilities such as a food-zone offering the public a wide range of cuisines, and a multi-level car parking facility to counter any problems with regard to overcrowding, the new facilities would add to the attractions of the ec-park.
