Zoo roads, drainage to be revamped

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) standing committee approved on Friday a proposal, worth Rs 8 crore, to repair roads and improve drainage in the Byculla zoo, as part of its long-overdue revamp.

The plan is to upgrade the roads and drainage system in the zoo, which have deteriorated over the years. "The internal roads are in poor condition and during monsoon it becomes unusable. The drainage system too suffers during the rain and gets blocked, causing water logging," said Anil Anjankar, director of the zoo.

Although the master layout plan of the zoo has not received an official approval by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) yet, officials, however, said the work will not affect the development later.

"The master layout plan does not include any new roads, change in alignment of roads or in the position of enclosures. Thus, this repair work can be easily completed beforehand," said Anjankar.The zoo's master layout plan is currently under the CZA review. The plan had received an in-principle approval from CZA in November 2011, but after some minor changes it was finally submitted in August this year. The current plan is a heavily revised version from when it was first proposed in 2007. The plan, in 2007, faced opposition from various groups who claimed that the plan would lead to possible loss of garden area and compromise its heritage structure. After some watering down, the CZA had given the much-revised plan its conditional approval in 2009. However, the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee and other groups had opposed it and the plan was rejected in May 2011. The BMC was then asked to submit a fresh masterplan based on CZA guidelines.

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