TBM Staff - Mumbai A sprawling nature park planned amid 200 acres of mangroves, proposed by the Forest Department’s mangrove cell, is one step closer to completion. The construction bids for the park are expected to be awarded by June-end, officials familiar with the matter said, reports HT.
Once done, the structure will house a ‘mangrove museum’, and a suspended glass bridge, offering visitors a view of the surrounding wetlands.
The project’s centrepiece is a 5,100 square metre, state-of-the-art nature interpretation centre (NIC) nestled on the banks of the Gorai Creek, and will be accessible via Link Road or by boat from the Gorai Jetty.
“It is a strategically placed structure within the dense mangrove forest and won’t be visible unless one reaches the entrance of the NIC. The structure is elevated from the ground and is designed like a skywalk which… gives one the sense of a structure floating above the eye level,” states the Forest Department’s detailed project report (DPR) for the NIC in Dahisar.
A 400-metre-long ‘mangrove trail’ is also being constructed on stilts, parallel to the high-tide line, and will serve as a pickup point for proposed kayaking excursions into the Gorai Creek and Dahisar River. These will be available to visitors only at high tides, lasting between 60 to 90 minutes. Larger educational tours of around 240 minutes each also also proposed, at a frequency of six slots every day.
“However, as with our Coastal & Marine Biodiversity Centre in Airoli, the main thrust in Dahisar is to serve as a base for research around mangroves and marine conservation. The Gorai facility is envisioned to be more of a tourist attraction, and construction has been completed. For the Dahisar facility, we have floated tenders and a suitable bidder will be awarded perhaps as soon as June-end,” said SV Ramarao, additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF), mangrove cell.
