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Sky shows lost in the clouds
As you step into the large semicircular foyer of the Hinduja Prataparudra Planetarium, the first in united Andhra Pradesh State, it’s for sure that very first glimpse catches you off-balance as the place looked like an assortment of stuff. Broken chairs, dusty interiors and a dilapidated sky show theatre is what is left of the planetarium that has remained closed for over four years now.
Hinduja Prataparudra Planetarium shut as projector too costly to be replaced
Warangal: As you step into the large semicircular foyer of the Hinduja Prataparudra Planetarium, the first in united Andhra Pradesh State, it’s for sure that very first glimpse catches you off-balance as the place looked like an assortment of stuff. Broken chairs, dusty interiors and a dilapidated sky show theatre is what is left of the planetarium that has remained closed for over four years now.
Started in 1984, the planetarium has come a long way in disseminating knowledge about astronomy and promoting scientific temperament among people, especially children, before it was shutdown in 2011.
Thanks to the initiative taken by the former prime minister PV Narasimha Rao, who then was the minister for external affairs. At his request, the Hinduja Foundation gifted the German-made dumbbell-shaped motor-driven axes Zeiss Skymaster ZKP-2, besides providing assistance to the municipality to raise the facility. The cost of the machinery was around Rs 40 lakh then.
This second generation of the small-dome planetariums was indeed a stepping stone for science enthusiasts and it soon became part and parcel of school excursions coming from the far flung places in the combined State at a time when there was no such facility in the region. Even the famous BM Birla Planetarium in Hyderabad run by the Birlas came into existence later.
In its heydays, the 80-seat capacity planetarium used to run no less than 10 shows (each of 40-minute) a day. Later, the wear and tear of the projector and the non-availability of spares started to nag the cosmic shows that attracted lakhs of people for about 27 years.
Speaking to The Hans India, the Director of the Planetarium since 2002, G Ravikiran Reddy, who is a government teacher, said: “After the extended life of the Zeiss projector, we had even managed the shows with a low cost LCD projector for a few years. But that too went defunct in 2011 leading to the closure of the planetarium.”
With the present digital projectors costing anywhere between Rs 5 crore and Rs 15 crore, the Municipal Corporation, which has no elected civic body for over five years, there was none to restore the facility. “We are exploring every option to revive the planetarium,” Warangal West MLA D Vinay Bhaskar said, disclosing that they had placed a request to the Tata Trust and Birla Foundation separately some three months ago. Against this backdrop, the planetarium has become a storeroom stashed with all kinds of materials belonging to the GWMC.
It might be noted here that after the Birla’s planetarium in 1985, two more facilities came up, one run by the Municipal Corporation of Vijayawada and the other owned by the Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust (SSSCT) at Puttaparthi in Anantapur district.
By:Adepu Mahender
