Considering the increasing crowd in Byculla's Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan the BMC is planning to start an online booking facility. This will avoid crowds at ticket windows in the zoo, said the sources. Meanwhile, the zoo has recorded around 30,000 visitors in the last four days and earned revenue of Rs. 11.88 lakhs.
The average weekday footfall in the zoo is around 3,000 while it swells to 9,000 on weekends. During the summer vacation, the average footfall on weekdays went to 12,000, while on weekends it reached 26,000-28,000. The zoo has recorded the highest number of visitors, up to 30,000 in May. According to the civic data, post-Covid 19 pandemic, the number of visitors to the zoo has doubled. It has recorded 17.22 lakhs of visitors in the last 10 months (November 2021 to August 2022) which earned a revenue of more than Rs. 6 crores.
" The zoo is undergoing a revamp and there have been many new arrivals in the zoo in the last two years. The biggest attraction has been leopards, Bengal tigers, hyenas and varieties of birds. This must have increased the number of visitors to the zoo. So the idea of online booking of tickets is to avoid crowds on the ticket windows,' said the civic official. The zoo is usually closed on Wednesday but due to Dussehra, it was kept open for visitors. It recorded 5,876 visitors throughout the day, while 16,734 visitors were recorded on October 2. The zoo generates income from charging entry fees to visitors which are set at Rs. 25 for children, Rs. 50 for adults and Rs.100 for a family of four. Before the arrival of the penguins, the entry fee was Rs.5.
In the month of October:
Date....visitors...revenue
2 ....16,734....6,57,090
3....3,479....1,46,625
4....3,732....1,40,540
5....5,876.....2,44,100
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