Ahmedabad civic body may hike cost of entry ticket to Kankaria zoo

The standing committee of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) will discuss the proposal to hike the entry fee for Kamala Nehru Zoological Garden on Friday. Popularly known as Kankaria Zoo, the proposed hike for adults is Rs22 from the current Rs10 and Rs12 from the current Rs5 for children.

The increase has been proposed by municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra. If accepted, this will be the first hike after 10 years as there has been no revision in its entry fare since 2003. Talking more about this proposal, one of the AMC officials said that this proposal is to meet the rising expenditures of the zoo. “The annual income of the zoo is around Rs1.5-2 crore, which is comparatively less than the establishment cost that comes to Rs4-5 crore every year. The cost of food for the animals itself amounts to Rs1.25 crore,” said the official.

There are seven zoos that come under the ‘large zoo’ category and interestingly, Kankaria zoo is the only zoo from Gujarat that comes under this group. “Out of 197 zoos of the country, only seven comes under the large zoo category. The rest are categorised under mini, small and medium zoo,” said the official.