3.12.09

Somewhere in Surat....

The Surat Municipal Corporation has planned a marine tunnel aquarium, which is expected to come up in 18 to 24 months, and all the groundwork has been done for the first-of-its-kind marvel in the country. “We are looking at the possibility of a 66 or 100-metre-long snakeshaped tunnel,” said Mukesh Dalal, chairman, SMC standing committee. “The Central Marine Fish Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi, has been appointed as the consultant for the project and it has submitted the draft bids to the SMC,” he added. “All presentations are ready...but the allotment of the funds would be done in the coming year’s budget,” said mayor Ranjit Gilitwala. The project is expected to cost around Rs 15 crore and could go up if the SMC opts for a longer tunnel, said D C Gandhi, in-charge engineer and garden cell project chief of the SMC. The SMC already has 25,722 sq mt space at Jagdishchandra Bose Udyan in Adajan where the first phase of the proposed aquarium project is coming up. The tunnel, to be made up of imported acrylic sheets, would be 4 metres broad and would have a shark pool in the first phase. “Bids for this would be invited from abroad as no one does this in India,” said Dalal. “We saw such an aquarium in Singapore and were inspired by it,” said Gilitwala.

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