TO PROMOTE eco-tourism in Nagpur city, the Forest Department is revamping ‘Balodyan’ (Van Udyan) in Seminary Hills area, a major tourist attraction among citizens and also for morning walkers. The garden is situated in the lap of rich flora and fauna, but lacked proper care by the department for a long time. The Forest Department is renovating the garden for children and tourists who prefer to visit the place for its natural beauty. “We have invested around Rs 4 crore for renovation of Balodyan and the stations of ‘Vanbala’. Within the next 15 days, the work will be over, and within another two weeks, the garden will re-open for visitors,” Dr Bharat Singh Hada, Deputy Conservator of Forest, Nagpur told ‘The Hitavada’. Vanbala, the toy train, which is the pride of Seminary Hills territorial forest and a source of great entertainment for youngsters in Balodyan, recently started chugging. To re-start the toy train for children of Nagpur, the Forest Department spent around Rs 70-80 lakh.

 

Citizens can enjoy the toy train ride daily, except on Mondays. The timing for the joy ride will be 10 am to 1 pm and 3 pm to 6 pm on all seven days. The ticket rates are Rs 20 for children and Rs 50 for adults. During this joy ride, citizens can witness the rich nature of Seminary Hills, which is situated in the centre of the city. A decade ago, this toy train was a tourist attraction in the city, but it lost its glory with passage of time due to poor maintenance by the department.

“Vanbala is a major attraction of the Balodyan, and it is getting tremendous response on weekends since it re-started,” said Dr Hada. The toy train was non-functional since 2016. The Forest Department planned to restart it in 2019, but the plan fizzled out due to Covid-19. Even before that, it used to run intermittently due to technical issues. Under the renovation work of Balodyan the iconic station of Vanbala is also renovated. Along with this, forest department has replaced all dilapidated rides and toys with new one for children. New boundary wall has been constructed along with new food court, new entrance gate and walking trail.