Green Park, Delhi

History

It was established in early 1960's and today has all the amenities of a cosmopolitan culture along with large residential and commercial areas and many religious places. Green Park is considered by some as the "lungs" of Delhi, as it is near one of the largest green areas in the city. It is part of the South Delhi (Lok Sabha constituency), and its current electorate member is Ramesh Bidhuri of BJP It is divided into 2 parts : Green Park Main and Green Park Extension. The Main hosts a medium-sized market with several restaurants and a shopping complex. The Extension mostly comprises residential areas. It has a number of open and wooded spaces in its vicinity - Deer Park, District Park and Rose Garden. These are very popular areas with morning walkers and laughter clubs. A big incident happened in Uphaar Cinema which is in green park on 13 June 1997 when a Hindi film Border was running,

The Uphaar Cinema fire, one of the worst fire tragedies in recent Indian history, occurred on Friday, 13 June 1997 at Uphaar Cinema, Green Park, Delhi, during the premiere screening of Border, a patriotic Hindi movie. 59 people died and 103 were seriously injured in the subsequent stampede; most of the victims were trapped on the balcony and were asphyxiated as they tried to reach dimly marked exits to escape the smoke and fire, and found the doors locked.

The fire broke out at 5:10 pm, after the transformer at the parking level burst, and 20 cars in the parking lot caught fire, eventually leading to a large scale fire in the five-storey building which housed the cinema hall and several offices. The cinema hall was situated in one of the busiest areas of South Delhi and the fire services were delayed owing to the heavy evening traffic. At least 48 fire tenders were pressed into service at 5.20 p.m. and it took them over an hour to put out the fire.Later the dead and the injured were rushed to the nearby All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Safdarjung Hospital, where scenes of chaos and pandemonium followed, as relatives and family members of the victims scurried around to look for known faces.

The victims of the tragedy and the families of the deceased later formed 'The Association of Victims of Uphaar Fire Tragedy' (AVUT), which filed the landmark Civil compensation case and won Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) in civil compensation for the relatives and families of victims, the judgment is now considered a breakthrough in Compensation Law in India; today they meet at every anniversary at 'Smriti Upavan' memorial, outside the hall, where a prayer meeting is held. However the Supreme Court on 13/10/2011, nearly halved the sum of compensation awarded to them by the Delhi high court and slashed punitive damages to be paid by cinema owners Ansal brothers from Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 25 lakh. Contents

Geography

It is bounded on the 4 sides by major avenues : Inner Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Aurobindo Marg and Africa Avenue. Hauz Khas, Safdarjung Enclave, SDA are adjoining colonies and 2 major hospitals, AIIMS and Safdarjung Hospital touch its boundaries.

Historical places

The adjoining areas of Green Park is Hauz Khas, of great historical significance with numerous monuments dating back to the medieval period of the Delhi Sultanate, and the Deer Park, which is a large public space with greenery and also the DLTA Tennis courts. and Uphaar Cinema is in Green Park.

Dining

Green Park market includes various restaurants of various cuisines, ranging from pizzas, kebabs to Southy delights. These include

Religious places

Jagannath Temple, New Delhi, Iyappa Temple, Balaji Temple (backside of GP, R K Puram) is also situated in the locality.