BANGALORE: Freedom Park located in the heart of the city is a multipurpose urban park built on erstwhile Central Jail on 21 acres of land with attractive public amenities, made to specially provide a dedicated place to hold rallies and protests. There are traces of the old central jail like the watch tower and prison cell. Hence, the historical importance of the place has not been diluted. But like most other places in Bangalore, Freedom Park too has it’s own set of drawbacks, which has tarnished it’s reputation.The wall that recently collapsed, claiming the life of a 38-year-old architect and damaging eight cars, was the first black mark on the park. The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike commissioner Siddaiah admitted that the foundation was a decade old and building a wall on it proved to be dangerous. But there is hope that work will soon begin and a better quality wall will be built in it’s place. Vendan, the concerned executive engineer from BBMP said, “The work has not yet begun. We are unsure about when we can start as we are waiting to get the approval from the commissioner. There is a huge procedure to be followed. The estimate has already been done. We are planning to build a wall or an iron grill fence. The budget should be more than `40 lakhs.” The much-admired watch tower in the park, that dates back to 1867 is also in a hazardous state. But as far as the tower is concerned, very little restoration work has been done in the last 145 years, thus making it dangerous. The residents have complained that the structure is very weak, heavy winds and rainfall may easily result in the collapse of the structure. Hemalatha, a daily visitor says, “Recently they marked a caution line around the tower so that people do not go too close to it and accidents maybe avoided. But I’m not sure if there is any actual work that is in progress at the moment.”According to Satish, the chief engineer of BBMP, “There is no problem with the structure of the tower. We re-strengthened the tower before the park was made open to the public. The only problem is with the tiles. It could prove to be dangerous if it collapses. But they are now removed. We will soon be substituting it with new tiles.”The area in the park that witnessed an overwhelming support for Anna Hazare for the anti-corruption movement seems to be in the middle of a scandal. The BBMP had defied a government order and passed bills in excess of an authorised budget for the development of the park. The budget initially was only `7.29 crore in 2006 but it was later reconsidered and revised due to cost escalation. The revised budget was passed off as `10.29 crore in 2007. But an addition of `8 crore of the taxpayers money seems to have been given away generously by the BBMP for development purposes. According to information obtained under RTI, `10.25 crore was spent only on the development of the park. Another `8 crore was spent on pathways, a children’s play area, the flooring for the people’s court, tree lighting, planting of Mexican grass and erecting a link fence and on the interiors of the theatre. Ironically the tenders for all these projects except the pathways have been given to only one contractor — K Damodrar. M Ashok Kumar, the chief accounts officer, BBMP, was unavailable for comments.But another attraction to the park will be soon on its way. Work is in progress to convert the old hospital into an art cafe and a book museum. Satish mentions, “The work is in progress. It should be open in another two to three months. The budget should be approximately around `2 crore.”BBMP Commissioner Siddhiah was unavailable for comment.
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