Published On : Thu, Oct 27th, 2016

Gorewada Zoo : CM sets deadline of Nov 2017 to start African, Indian Safari

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File Pic: Fadnavis inaugurates Gorewada Wildlife Rescue Center

File Pic: Fadnavis inaugurates Gorewada Wildlife Rescue Center

Nagpur: After coming up with the deadline of Nov 2017 for first operation of Metro Rail in Nagpur, the Chief MInister Devendra Fadnavis has now focussed on completion of Gorewada Zoo, the project which has been progressing at snail’s pace.

Taking strong note of this fact, Fadnavis has now set a fresh deadline for African and Indian safari of the Gorewada zoo project. The minister has directed state forest department to start both the safaris by November 2017.

Earlier, in a review meeting held on May 7 2015, Fadnavis had set December 2015 deadline for biopark and Indian safari projects. Fadnavis also approved upgrade of 16km of roads for the jungle safari.

In a meeting held in Mumbai on Wednesday, Fadnavis also gave in-principle clearance to a 4km-long ropeway ride which will be an added attraction to the zoo.

The Rs 34-crore Gorewada zoo ropeway proposal was mooted by West Nagpur BJP MLA Sudhakar Deshmukh, whose constituency includes the site for the zoo. Fadnavis has now instructed forest officials to prepare a detailed project report for the ropeway and submit it to the centre for approval.

Fadnavis asked the forest department to get the centre’s permission for the project on priority basis.
It may mentioned that in order to boost tourism economy in the region the Gorewada Zoo project was proposed 11 years back.

Though it was schedule to start in 2005, the actual process to set it up started only in 2011, and permissions for zoo master plan and rescue centre from Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and Supreme Court were obtained in 2014 and 2015. The plan was to be executed in 4 phases over a 7-year period. However, no work on the ground has begun.