Page 104 - HUDCO BEST PRACTICE AWARDS

Urban Design anD regional Planning, inner city revitalization anD conservation

Year 2018-19

Bharat ratna Shradheya Shri atal Behari Vajpayee

anuBhuti udhyan by ujjain development authority

Ujjain Development Authority came up with an idea of constructing a unique park for the disabled community, enabling them to sense, feel, recognize, walk and enjoy like common men. As per
the Census 2011, in Madhya Pradesh 15.51 lakh people, which account for 2.13% of the total population of 7.26 crores are identified with disability. Hence, such concept of a park came into
existence and all the initial interactions and primary surveys resulted in the development of this iconic ‘DIVYANG PARK’, for the disabled, spreading over an area of 2.5 Hectares, which became
the largest facilitated park in the world. ‘DIVYANG PARK’ is based on an integrated holistic development theme / approach and is also based on the concept of barrier free design, bringing
together all the users under one umbrella.

Introduction
harat Ratna Shradheya Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee Anubhuti Udhyan developed by Ujjain
BDevelopment Authority (UDA) is a unique Park, enabling the disabled (physically
challenged) communities to sense, feel and recognize, walk and enjoy like common men
with his sense organs. The idea for this unique park came into existence from the concept
of such park being already developed in the district of Hoshangabad of Madhya Pradesh.
The UDA officials visited the Science City of Kolkata and various other parks to understand
the theme and also interacted with various NGOs (Aarushi Bhopal, Sneha Nagda (M.P.)),
Forest Department of Madhya Pradesh along with various horticulturists and experts of
herbal and medicinal plants and landscape designers. All these interactions and primary
surveys resulted in the development of the iconic ‘DIVYANG PARK’, for disabled spreading
over an area of 2.5 Hectares (6.17 acres) which became the largest facilitated park in the
world.
Background
ensus 2011 has revealed that over 2.68 crore people in India are suffering from one
Cor the other kind of disability. This is equivalent to 2.2% of the population. As per
Census 2011 in Madhya Pradesh 15.51 lakh people, which accounts for 2.13% of the total
population of 7.26 crores are identified with disability. Type wise distribution of persons
with disabilities in Madhya Pradesh and the project district (Ujjain) is given in the table
below.

Table 1: Distribution of persons with disability (in nos.) (Census 2011) Entrance of largest facilitated park for disabled
Type of disability MP Ujjain Key dates
he project was started with the primary survey being conducted on 12th January,
Seeing 2,70,751 5,828
T2018 by the team of UDA, when they visited various sites such as the Divyang Park
at Hoshangabad, Aarushi Sanstha for disable person (disable rehabilitation centre) and
Hearing 2,67,361 6,197
Sneh Sanstha, Nagda. After conducting the primary survey and having a fair idea of the
Speech 69,324 1,390 essentials of planning a park for disabled, the work for the Divyang park started on 23rd
February, 2018 with transplantation of existing trees and landscape development of the
Movement 4,04,738 11,013 park. On 4th October, 2018, within a span of nine months, Divyang Park was inaugurated
and received the Golden Book of World Record award for the largest facilitated park for
Mental Retardation 77,803 2,673 disabled persons.

Mental Illness 39,513 1,280 Main focus
he main focus of developing the park was to enable the disabled persons to sense, feel
Any other 2,95,035 7,013
Tand recognize, which was also the very theme of the park. It also focused on holistic
development, well-being and happiness for all the targeted age groups visiting the park.
Multiple disability 1,27,406 3,474
Moreover, development of the park was also done focusing on eco-friendly, environmentally
Total 15,51,931 38,868 sustainable and energy efficient practices.

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