By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Jan. 9: With the approval of a master plan for the construction of a Zoological Park, which also includes a zoo, in Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur district, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC), is now preparing its Detailed Project Report (DPR).
A consultant has been hired to prepare the DPR report of semi-open zoo, which will spread in an area of 245 hectares of land covering seven community forests of Suryabinayak, Gundu, Sipadol and Katunje, in addition to government-owned land, said Haribhadra Acharya, information officer of DNPWC.
“We cannot say that pace of work towards the park completion is satisfactory, and it hasn’t been able to gather required momentum,” he said.
Along with an information centre and office building for DNPWC, other structures crucial for the semi-open zoo will be constructed at the cost of Rs. 80 million, he added.
However, construction works related to office building of DNPWC has almost completed. Earlier, owing to delay in approving the master plan, the project remained mired in uncertainty. A Cabinet meeting held on February 12, 2015 had decided to construct the zoological garden.
A year after that decision, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had laid the foundation stone of the Park on June 23, 2016.
The government had decided to build the zoo to preserve the endangered wild animals and birds. ‘‘Our plan is to shift the bigger animals like tiger, rhino, bear, leopard, elephant, crocodile, hippopotamus and other animals and birds, to the new Park from the Central Zoo located in Jawalakhel,’’ he said.
Fencing work on the 16-kilometre perimeter of the Park is almost completed. DNPWC had initiated the fencing works from the fiscal year 2015/16.