City recreational centres draw large crowd

The recreational centres in and around the city have attracted large crowd during the Eid and Puja festivals thanks to favourable weather.
During the vacation the city people with children, couples and young men and women in groups paid visits to the city recreation centres and other amusement spots for enjoyment.
Most of the city dwellers gathered at Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban area, National Museum, National Zoo at Mirpur, National Botanical Garden, Dhanmondi Lake, Dhaka University area, Shishu Park at Shahbagh, Ramna Park, Fantasy Kingdom at Ashulia and Nandan Water Park at Savar etc.
Following visits to several recreation spots in the city this correspondent found a large number of people waiting in long lines to buy entry-tickets.
Mohammad Rezaul Karim, father of a 10-year-old boy, came to Fantasy Kingdom Water World from Mirpur and was waiting for tickets at the entrance.
He said usually he doesn't have time to spend for visiting recreational centres. But for Eid vacation he came with his son to visit some spots.
M Mahfuzur Rahaman, media manager of Concord Entertainment Co Ltd, said Fantasy Kingdom has become a favourite destination for recreation as it has an assembly of landscaped gardens, walkways, lakes, statues and plenty of adventure rides.
He said for Eid festival the number of visitors has increased. On an average 3,000-4,000 people are visiting the park everyday while the number at normal time was 1,000-1,500.
Many people were also seen visiting the Nandan Water Park, one of the largest amusement centres in Bangladesh. On every Eid vacation it attracts new crowds.
Low-income people were found crowding the National Zoo, Shishu Park and National Museum which charge from Tk 20 to 50 as entry fee.
Salma Khatun, a college teacher and mother of a 5-year-old girl, who came to the National Zoo at Mirpur said she had been waiting to get a ticket for 1.5 hours.
Like Salma Khatun a large number of people with children were found visiting the National Zoo.
An official of the National Zoo said on a usual day they had around a 3-4 thousand visitors on an average but during two days after Eid the number crossed 20,000 everyday.
He said thanks to favourable weather this year they are satisfied with visitors coming to the zoo.
The Shishu Park officials said that some 0.15 million people visited the park during the last two days.
He said the Shishu Park authorities earned handsome revenue during the two Eid occasions as this time many families prefer visiting the park with their kids.

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