DCC officials said almost all the rides in the children's park are now outdated. "These rides need extensive renovation. Some of the rides are running since the establishment of the park in 1979," said a senior official at DCC's Engineering Department.

"We feel the park should be renovated and modernised immediately," he added.

The children's park currently has 12 rides -- including merry-go-round, wonder wheel, benkino train, roller skating, trampoline, battery car, chair tower and flower cup ride which were installed by Japanese technicians back in 1979.

Regular visitors, however, complained that the rides have been in a run-down condition for the last few years. "Some of the rides are too dangerous for children," said Omi, a teenager who frequently visits the park.

Despite the fact that most of these rides have an overall life span of 10 years, the park authorities have been operating and maintaining them properly over the past 26 years, the DCC officials explained.

"It's true that most of these rides are rusty, but no accident took place so far. As such we feel that privatising the park would make it more attractive," said a DCC official.

Last year a proposal to expand the park was submitted to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. The proposal included installation of 16 more rides in the 15-acre children's park.

As the ministry is yet respond to the proposal, the DCC is planning to improve the overall condition of the park by handing it over to the private sector.

But some city-dwellers are quite sceptic about the DCC plan. "Privatisation may lead to higher prices of tickets and charges of rides," said Amirul Haq, a visitor.

Haq, a public servant, pointed out that already the ticket prices have been raised to Tk 8 from Tk 5 while the charge for each ride has been raised from Tk 4 to Tk 6.

"A further increase in ticket prices and ride charges may cause the park to lose most of its visitors from the lower and middle income groups," said Haq.

The DCC official however predicted that such problems may not occur.

A source said 5,000 to 6,000 people still visit the park daily. "If our visitors were that sensitive to prices, then we would have experienced a major decline in this number since the price hike that occurred in June last year," he said.

The official explained that the increase in prices were actually VAT (value-added tax). "Currently the park's annual income is Tk 2 crore," he said.

The official further pointed out that due to the popularity and location of the park, more revenue will be generated from the venue if privatised.

"We are currently concentrating on improving the overall condition of the park and transforming it into a well-equipped entertainment park for the children," said Sadek Hossain Khoka, the mayor of DCC.

DCC sources said the improvements may be made by October, 2006.