The COVID facility, built on a portion of the mammoth 11 acre Science Centre has long been dismantled. "Now, we await the public," said S M Bani, Library Officer of the Centre
Nehru Science Centre
Aspiring Einsteins fired up by scientific learning and research have an option now, that of leaving their online worlds and stepping into the Nehru Science Centre in Worli. The Centre, which was once part of a swathe of Worli infrastructure that had been taken over as COVID care centres, is reopening for the public today.
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Going gradual
The COVID facility, built on a portion of the mammoth 11 acre Science Centre has long been dismantled. "Now, we await the public," said S M Bani, Library Officer of the Centre. He added, "It will be a gradual, progressive opening, not every facility within the Centre's campus will open at once. We have a theatre where Science films are shown. The capacity is 195 seats but we plan to keep it to 50 seats. Our main visitors were schoolchildren and tourists, that demographic may change with few tourists and schools closed," said Bani.
Space ace
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Shivaprasad Khened, director of the Centre added, "The big plus is the size of the campus. With its sprawling open spaces, social distancing is extremely doable inside. We are ensuring spacing, we will not open all our 14 exhibition halls. Five of them will open to begin with. We will see how it goes."
Khened said he discerned 'COVID fatigue' which may have people getting out of their homes and coming to the Centre. "By fatigue I do not mean recklessness and irresponsible behaviour. It means exploring this option, which will conduct itself with adherence to guidelines." The director was enthused that the walk-ins will have access to, "our Coronavirus exhibition which we had originally planned for March was already up but then the lockdown happened."
A drone workshop held at the Nehru Science Centre in 2019
One of the superheroes of the pandemic though has been Science, it will be scientific research that will bring about what the world is waiting for — a vaccine. Khened laughed as he said, "On the ground people are learning that when you have problems the application of Science is a way out. The world has moved virtual and we have had a plethora of online courses, information about scientific probes online. We have virtual meets on the New Science Technology Innovation Policy 2020. Science fans have been logging on to our programmes like 'Night Sky Observations' at least 80,000 people logged in at one time." The Centre's head said he is expecting about 1/6th the number of daily visitors compared to pre-COVID times which is, "about 200 persons."
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Happy coincidence
For Umesh Kumar, who is head of the educational programmes department at the Centre it is a "happy coincidence" that the Centre is opening on, "World Science Day or International Science Centre and Science Museum Day' as it is known globally." On November 11, "the Centre will also mark its 35th anniversary," he explained. Kumar too has been enthused by the response to a slew of online workshops held by the Science centre through the lockdown.
"The opening, where visitors will have to wear masks, will also be a learning experience for us. Public transport is limited so that too will result in a drop in numbers, but we have enough parking for private vehicles," he said. The Centre's chiefs conclude that the learning is not just for the visitors, the gusto about online programmes has been a real lesson for them. Khened signed off, "We have had so many pan India meetings with different Science centres online, it has saved costs and we have not flown to other cities like before so it has also lessened the carbon footprint. It is called the science of adapting."
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