Tent city, organic haat, adventure zone among new features at Baansera in Delhi

Officials said the aim is to transform Baansera into a popular weekend destination for residents and tourism hot spot for travellers

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is set to introduce new activities at Baansera park near Sarai Kale Khan such as a tent city, organic haat, a food court and an adventure zone, officials said on Friday. Baansera is situated along the Yamuna floodplains and is part of the Kalindi Aviral biodiversity park.

Some of the features that already exist at Baansera are water bodies, mounds, pathways, forest trail, bamboo structure works. (HT Archive)

Officials said the aim is to transform Baansera into a popular weekend destination for residents and tourism hot spot for travellers. DDA has started the process of appointing a technical advisor for conducting feasibility studies and selecting a developer or concessionaire who will operate and mainten Baansera on a public private partnership (PPP) mode.

“Baansera is spread across 40 hectares. With such vast open space available, we want to add more popular activities to make it interactive for all age groups,” said a DDA official.

Officials said all National Green Tribunal guidelines and the latest master plan for Delhi (MPD) must be followed during the process of conducting feasibility studies and while preparing bids for contractors.

“This is a transformative initiative aimed at creating a vibrant, nature-friendly public space that fosters community engagement and well-being along with enhancing the ecological character of the floodplains. The project is Delhi’s first multi-use public space under green bamboo cover, which has bamboo plantation in the form of groves, bambusetum and public amenities made of bamboo,” a second DDA official said.

The new features planned for Baansera include a recreational club, food court offering multiple cuisines, an information kiosk for adventure sports, an organic haat, and a tent city with small tent accommodation to increase tourism. DDA plans to add a children’s play area, built using bamboo, bamboo miniatures of Delhi monuments, watchtowers made of bamboo and other miscellaneous bamboo amenities.

“The hired agency will also be asked to suggest other activities and amenities going with the bamboo theme of Baansera. Based on space and funds, we can add more such features,” said the official.

Some of the features that already exist at Baansera are water bodies, mounds, pathways, forest trail, bamboo structure works, children play area, elephant family sculpture, musical fountain, flower bed area and a 25,000sqms “top plateau”.

DDA is carrying out a restoration and rejuvenation of the Yamuna floodplain along a 22-kilometre urban stretch from the Wazirabad Barrage to the Okhla Barrage on both its eastern and western banks. The stretch has been divided into eleven projects each of an area of more than 1,700 hectares. DDA has developed a portion of Kalindi Aviral as Baansera at Sarai kale Khan, located between NH-24 and Barapullah drain on the western bank as a theme-based Bamboo park.

The development authority is also installing solar lights that dim down around midnight, officials said. In January, DDA called bids for an operator to run the Bamboo Oasis cafe, made of bamboo, at the park. The operator was allowed to serve pre-cooked food, tea, coffee, non-alcoholic beverages, refreshments, baked items, snacks etc. However, the cafe has not started yet.

Baansera has been developed as a public park at a former wasteland site along the Yamuna and features more than 15 varieties of 30,000 bamboo plants. DDA has also planted the medicinal Lakadong turmeric plant from Meghalaya under the thick bamboo groves over two acres of land at Baansera. The park is open to the public with an entry fee of ₹30 for adults and free entry for children under 10 years of age. The musical fountain is operated for two shows of half an hour each at 7.30pm and 8.30pm from Sunday to Tuesday. A nearby depression area of approximately of six acres is being developed into a water body which will be a part of the project, a DDA official said.

The aim of the project is to make use of bamboo in its living and recreational form, use of different species of bamboo as plantation along with other riverine plants and as design elements with bamboo as a building material.