THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI:
Despite the distractions of social media, Goa's Science Centre at Miramar has continued to evince heightened interest among the student community and science enthusiasts and registered record footfalls in the 2023-24 academic year.
In fact, the footfalls almost doubled in the year as compared to the number of visitors the Science Centre hosted in the previous year. Officials at the Centre said, a total of 1.31 lakh and 385 people visited the science center in 2022-23 and in 2023-24 this number almost doubled to 2.48 lakh.
In schools, science is bracketed among the tougher subjects for students but breaking it down in simple and attractive parlance attracts attention and interest. This is why the Miramar Science Centre is one of the most visited places outside of campuses by Goa's school going children and the number keeps growing each year. Over 39,000 students visited the Centre in 2023-24 with the Planetarium being the most sought after.
Apart from the Planetarium, the Science Centre boasts of attractions like a 3D Show, Scientific Equipment, Science Park and a Prehistoric Park.
In 2022-23, the Planetarium had 49,056 visitors and the number rose to 53,819 in 2023-24.
And, the centre is also attracting the attention of the non-student community and science enthusiasts. In 2022-23, over 50,000 footfalls from the non-student community were recorded and this number marginally decreased in 2023-24 to 49,486. The official also said that over eight years the Centre has had a whopping 19 lakh visitors.
Built in the prime location hugging the Miramar-Dona Paula coastal road, the Goa Science Centre has had a chequered history before its inception in the mid-1990s.
Real Estate sharks had laid a siege on the site and the government of the day had to fight a protracted legal battle in the then nascent Goa bench of the Bombay High Court following which, the project survived and three decades later is proving to be one of the State's more successful public projects. A mini-Oceanarium plotted in the original plan for the Science Centre, however, is yet to materialise.
