Your kids can touch fish at renovated Taraporevala Aquarium from Friday
Feb 24, 2015
MUMBAI: The country's oldest and once one of the city's main attractions, the Taraporevala Aquarium, is set to reopen.
The renovated aquarium, with a marine tunnel, will be inaugurated on Friday by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Its key attraction will be a 12-foot long and 360 degree acrylic glass tunnel, from where visitors can enter.
Another main attraction will be special pools, where children can touch fish which are harmless. The fish will be in large glass tanks,which will be lit with LED lights.
The renovation, on for two years, should have ended by August 2014 but got delayed due to technical reasons. The cost also escalated from Rs 19 crore to Rs 22 crore.
The new aquarium will have about 2,000 fish of over 400 species, most of them imported from Hong Kong and Bangkok.
Most of the marine fish are exotic, like the butterfly, damsel, helicopter, Arowana and Gruppen. Others varieties include the tang, yellow-striped tang, blue-spotted stingray, star, clown, hark, trigger, Grouper and Moorish idol.
"The aquarium will have awareness programmes. There will be slide shows or educational films of 10-15 minutes each for children," said fisheries commissioner Madhukar Gaikwad.
Mumbaikars will, however, have to pay Rs 15-20 more as entry fees. The government has after 12 years hiked the visitors' fees for adults (above 12 years) to Rs 60 and for children (3-12 years) it will be Rs 30. Other than the Rs 500 charge for using your mobile, the use of digital or video cameras will be charged an extra Rs 1,000.....tke ur children soon before it gets messd up