If work is taking a toll on you, a weekend trip to the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary in Haryana could be a perfect breather.

Besides an eco-friendly revamp of the existing facilities, the sanctuary is twittering with 290 different species of migratory birds—from the pintail to the mallard and whistling teal.

“We are upgrading the tourism department’s motel here,” Haryana minister for forest and tourism Kiran Chaudhary said. “The forest department is also building eco-friendly huts which will be maintained by the state tourism department.”

The state government is also revamping the hitherto rain-fed water bodies in the sanctuary. “There are plans to build a walkway around the lake area for visitors to get a closer glimpse of the birds,” the minister said.

However, the approach road to the sanctuary leaves a lot be desired, as construction work of a flyover is in progress. And it has affected the tourist inflow.

“We used to have cent percent occupancy, especially on weekends before the construction work started. But now even during the peak season (December to February) we have 85-90 per cent occupancy,” Dharamvir, the manager at the Rosy Pelican tourist resort, said.

Chaudhary said she has written to the Public Works Division (PWD) to finish the project at the earliest.

A senior official from the PWD said, “The flyover project began in December 2006 and was to be completed in 12 months, but we had to re-work the plan after the railways objected to the flyover’s heigh—it was increased to 8.15 metres from 6.5 metres.”

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