Visakhapatnam: The GVMC council withdrew its earlier proposal of a theme park for dogs and replaced it with a biodiversity park.
The decision was taken at the council meeting here on Saturday, following opposition from the council members and a protest by 76 ward corporator M. Ganga Rao from CPM. Ganga Rao held the protest in front of the GVMC office with four pet dogs. “We do not have proper parks for denizens here, but the GVMC proposed a park for dogs at a cost of Rs 2 crore,” Ganga Rao said.
When contacted, the GVMC horticulture assistant director M. Damodara Rao said the GVMC wanted to develop 10 theme parks at different locations in the city. The concept of a theme park for dogs was discussed to check the practice of some people walking on the footpaths and city roads with pet dogs. This created a nuisance on public roads, he said.
“A theme park for dogs is successfully running in Hyderabad where owners visit the park with pets. We adopted the Hyderabad concept here on a trial basis in 200-300 square meters but was rejected by the Mayor in the council. We have then suggested a biodiversity park as an alternative,” Damodara Rao told this newspaper.
The dog park was proposed at ward number 95 at Sujathanagar under zone-8. A landscape architect K. Raghuraman from Chennai was asked to present a basic report on this project.
