Sea change?

Plans to revamp the Taraporevala Aquarium have run into one hurdle after another. But it remains a big draw, especially in summer

Judging by the tourist buses outside, and tourists inside, Taraporevala Aquarium on Marine Drive is enjoying its annual vacation surge.

The aquarium, opened in 1951, was built for Rs 8.9 lakh by the Government of Bombay and named after Vicaji Taraporevala, a Parsi philanthropist who donated Rs 2 lakh for its construction. The only public aquarium in Mumbai, it hosts 50 species from Arowana fish (also called dragon fish) to sea anemones, lobsters, sea snakes, neon fish, sea turtles and freshwater sharks.

It is a commercial success, largely owing to its location near Chowpatty. For some time now, there have been plans to upgrade Taraporevala to an oceanarium. Aquarium officials say funds are not a problem, and yet the renovation work has not begun.

 

One visit is all it takes to grasp the aquarium’s present condition. It is very small. A visitor can walk through Taraporevala in less than 30 minutes. (The oceanarium on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, for instance, has 6,500 animals.) There are several “Tank under repair” notices, and some tanks are so blurred that it is difficult to spot the marine species. The entry fee is only Rs 15. It is no surprise that most tourists here are Indian.

Two years ago, plans were announced to bring in orcas (killer whales) and other animals native to cold waters like those around Antarctica. In response, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, an animal rights group, wrote to B S Bonal, Member Secretary of the Central Zoo Authority, asking him not to permit any further confinement of marine mammals in tanks.

PETA officials said the aquarium was already neglected. “These faulty plans go against world sentiment, our knowledge of ocean life and the idea that humans should let orcas, dolphins, penguins and fish live in peace with their families in the world's oceans — where they belong,” PETA’s Dharmesh Solanki said at the time.

The proposal to renovate the aquarium was made in the mid-1990s under the Shiv Sena-BJP government. According to the proposal, the aquarium would be turned into an oceanarium like in Singapore. Alliance Technology and Development (ATD), a Singapore company, was chosen to implement the project. Then environmentalists filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court alleging irregularities in the award of contracts. ATD was later asked to pay a bank guarantee. Finally, the state Fisheries Department scrapped the contract. It said a global tender would be floated, again.

In 2009 the government asked for fresh bids to renovate the aquarium, at a cost estimated at Rs 250 crore. The project was to be implemented on a build-operate-transfer basis in two years. But just one company submitted a final technical and financial bid.

Even in 2011, there were reports of a speedy decision to be taken by a government committee handling the bids. News reports said Maharashtra’s Chief Secretary would announce a winner by August 2011. No consensus was reached on the process, however. Earlier this year, the Fisheries Department said again that it had cancelled earlier bids and would invite fresh bids. Aquarium officials say only that discussions on the process are still going on. Now they plan to complete it by 2014.

Experts say the Taraporevala renovation faces other constraints. “The project is very ambitious,” says a city development expert. “However, it falls in the Coastal Regulation Zone [where construction is strictly controlled]. Also, we are not sure whether the aquarium will be allotted the floor space index [FSI] required for such a magnificent plan.” A recent news report quoted the Fisheries Commissioner saying that the oceanarium would be on dairy land in Worli, because the Marine Drive site was not large enough.

Politics intervened when Milind Deora, Congress MP for Mumbai South, commented on Twitter.com two months ago on the slow pace of decision-making on key infrastructure projects in Mumbai — including the aquarium. This prompted Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s office to issue a statement on the progress of various projects. It said that an FSI of 4 had been granted to the aquarium and fresh tenders invited.

As Taraporevala dangles between ambitious plans and bureaucratic delays, officials also worry whether a revamped aquarium will draw large numbers of visitors. “It is definitely a good plan,” says an aquarium official. “But after renovation, when the fee will increase at least 30 times [to an estimated Rs 500] we are worried whether the public will still be able to afford to visit.”

For now, children and parents at the aquarium are unperturbed. “This place is definitely amusing for the kids,” says Milind Sable, 35, from Pune. “Even if it doesn't match world standards, it is a boon for middle-class parents who cannot afford to take our children on flashy aquarium trips abroad.”