Govt stops joyrides at Eco park

The West Bengal government today directed the authority of an amusement park here to stop all joyrides there following a mishap on Sunday in which several children were injured when a ride turned turtle when a nor'wester hit the city.

All the rides in the park will remain suspended till the inquiry into the incident is over, state Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim said.

Ten children were injured, two of them seriously, in the mishap due to the violent thunderstorm which saw strong squally winds and rainfall, a phenomenon witnessed during early summer evenings in eastern India.

The minister said that he has asked the chairman of Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO), which manages the Eco park, to form an inquiry committee to look into the accident.

 

"They should introduce joyrides with the permission of the state government. I will ask the HIDCO chairman to give a reply. Who had done the work (on the ride)? What were the safety measures taken during the rides?" he said.

"It is not correct to introduce joyrides without taking permission from the state government. All the rides will remain suspended till the enquiry is over. The ride should have been stopped before the storm", the minister said.

He said that 16 children were playing on the ride when the accident happened.

HIDCO has constituted a committee to look into the mishap, a senior official of the state government said.

The two children who received serious injuries were undergoing treatment at a private hospital here.

"Both are in the ICCU and kept under observation," a senior doctor at the private hospital said.

The police source in New Town, where the park is located, said that they were also conducting a probe into the accident.

The police has reached the spot and rescued the children, the source said.

"We are trying to find out from the CCTV footages inside the park what went wrong during the time of the mishap. We are collecting circumstantial evidences from the place," a senior officer of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate said.

"Though it seems that the ride had lost its balance following the nor'wester, we are trying to find out whether there was any laxity on the part of the park authorities," the officer said.