City Hangout – Traffic Training Park, Baba Kharak Singh Marg
An unusual garden.
[Text and photos by Mayank Austen Soofi]
Delhi despises traffic rules because hardly any Delhiwalla visits the Traffic Training Park.
Situated on central Delhi’s Baba Kharak Singh Marg, it is an unusual garden. Instead of flowers and ponds, there are roads, pavements, traffic lights, zebra crossings, and even a yellow bus stand.
Set up in 1964, the park also has a foot-over bridge.
There are five of these traffic parks in the capital. The others are in Roshanara Bagh, Punjabi Bagh, Pragati Maidan and at Bal Bhawan on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg.
The Delhi Traffic Police recommend law-abiding citizens to “visit these parks to learn about traffic rules and road safety norms in a practical and theoretical manner.”
One placard in the park says, “Do not ride Zig Zag.”
Another suggests, “Stay Alive – Think & Drive’.
A safety tip for cycle riders is written in Old English (almost): “You should never lead an animal whilst cycling.”
A poster shows two children sitting blisfully on their car’s backseat. Both are wearing seatbelts – a rare backseat sight in Delhi.
A display board decodes dozens of road signs; the one for ‘Bullock cart prohibited’ is a must-see.
Although dedicated to the city’s noisy traffic, the park remains serenely quiet. There’s one green bench here for you to while away sunny-blue winter afternoons with a racy novel.
A hoarding erected on the broken footpath outside says, “Walk on right side of road if there is no footpath.”
Where Traffic Training Park, Next to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, Baba Kharak Singh Marg Nearest Metro Station Rajiv Chowk/Sardar Patel Time 10 am to 5 pm
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This is a part of the Wikipedia entry for ‘Cargo Cult’:
“In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size replicas of aeroplanes out of straw and cut new military-style landing strips out of the jungle, hoping to attract more aeroplanes”
Does that ring any bells?
You mean Gurudwara Bangla Sahib? Sisganj is in Chandni Chowk. There’s also the Shivaji Stadium airport line station right in front of the park.
Corrected. Sorry.
6, 11 and 14: SWACCH BHARAT! 🙂
And for the benefit of young couples who hangout/date in metro stations, I hope these parks are close to their colleges and entry is free, may these park be discovered by those love birds 🙂
SIR
I AM DOING PRACTICE FOR SCOOTER DRIVING WITH SAFE DRIVING.
I WANT CAME AT YOUR THIS PLACE PLEASE CHECK & CONFIRM ME IT WITH TIME & DATE
REGARDS
MEENA