Civic body plans a Singapore-style bird park at Dadar

The idea for the bird park was pitched by Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray in a meeting with civic officials this month. The BMC is likely to tie up with the authorities of the 49-acre Jurong Bird Park.

Amid the growing concrete jungle, Mumbaiites may soon get to see an aviary — along the lines of Singapore’s iconic Jurong Bird Park — located in the heart of the city. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning a bird park on a 10-acre plot (around 42, 000 square metres) at Pramod Mahajan Kala Park in Dadar (West).

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning a bird park on a 10-acre plot (around 42, 000 square metres) at Pramod Mahajan Kala Park in Dadar (West). (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

The idea for the bird park was pitched by Yuva Sena chief Aaditya Thackeray in a meeting with civic officials this month. The BMC is likely to tie up with the authorities of the 49-acre Jurong Bird Park to conduct an in-depth study to explore the feasibility of the aviary.

“My input was to expand our urban forest in the park and to check the possibility of an aviary there. We need to bring these attractions for our people,” Thackeray told HT.

As of now, the BMC has written to the authorities of Jurong Park, which has hundreds of different species of exotic birds, and their representatives are likely to arrive here by September. The representatives will study the entire plot and the climate in order to determine which species of exotic birds will be suitable for the aviary. “The cost estimation for building the bird park would be done once a feasibility study of the park is conducted,” added Thackeray.

This is not the first time that the civic body is planning a bird park in the city. In 2014, the BMC had planned to develop a bird park on a 25-acre plot in Powai, with the cost estimated to touch ₹150 crore. While it had appointed a project consultant, several delays and lack of land availability led to the scrapping of the plan.