Pilgrims to miss cosmic experience, so will tourists, students

KOLKATA: For the next nine months, a must-visit Kolkata destination will be missing from tourists' itinerary.
Birla Planetarium that is a major attraction among low-budget tourists that throng Kolkata shut its doors to the public till on Tuesday. The planetarium-India's first with second-largest seating capacity in the world-will reopen next winter after a major renovation.
This is the first time in over 50 years that the planetarium is being such for an extended period. Till now, the only scheduled closure it has had is for half a day on Holi and the odd days when bandhs or strikes have crippled the city. For all these years, the planetarium has functioned uninterrupted, screening seven shows a day on weekdays and nine shows on holidays.
While the shut-down has been necessitated by a need to upgrade facilities including the projection technology, something that budding astronomers welcome, it will be a huge disappointment for droves of people from suburbs and district towns of Bengal who comprise a bulk of the audience. For them, gazing at the stars during the day while listening to the commentary in Bengali was as fascinating as the sights of various animals, birds and reptiles at Alipore zoo, strange objects including the mummy at the Indian museum and, of course, the marble wonder, Victoria Memorial.
"It is sad to disappoint so many people who come a long way to see the planetarium. But we are certain when the planetarium reopens, the new shows and displays will bring more joy to them," said Birla Planetarium director Debiprosad Duari.
Apart from various districts in the state, the planetarium also draws a large number of Gangasagar pilgrims in winter. For them, the cosmic experience at the planetarium was the perfect cap to the trip that includes Kalighat and Victoria Memorial. The Hindi shows are usually packed during this period.
In May and June, nearly seven-eight bus loads of visitors arrive from Tamil Nadu and Andhra. Their itinerary too has a slot for the planetrium, either during the show in Hindi or English. Most of them do not understand the commentary but stare in awe at the stars in high noon.
Students is another community that will be affected. Schools do regular trips in October, December and April for students of class IV to VIII. "We knew the shutdown would inconvenience people, so we carefully chose the nine month period beginning January 27 that is just past the peak winter season ending Republic Day," Duari explained.
In 2013-14, the plantearium attracted 5,50,000 visitors. This fiscal, it has grown to 7,00,000. When the Rs 30-crore upgrade by Carl Zeiss is completed, Duari expects the visitor count to increase even further. The current system of opto-mechanical projectors will be replaced by opto-mechanical and digital projection system running in tandem.