An official cleans a new golf cart at Patna zoo on Sunday. Picture by Nagendra Kumar Singh

Patna, June 5: Three new golf carts would give the Patna zoo visitors the ticket to indulge in unbridled fun and frolic, albeit for a fee. The carts would take visitors around the entire zoo in an hour’s time.

Elaborating on the new service which would be made available to the public in the next three to four days, Patna zoo director Abhay Kumar said: “The new 12-seater golf cart car would bring lot of relief for the visitors who come here with their family members. The Patna zoo spreads across 153 acres. It is comparatively bigger than some of the other zoos, including the one in Calcutta. Thus, visitors take a few hours to complete one round of the zoo.”

He added: “We have received many suggestions from regular visitors to make such kind of arrangements so that they are not forced to walk 9 to 10km to see all the animals, birds and other creatures in the zoo. It is part of our efforts to introduce environment-friendly mode of transport on the zoo premises so that people could move around the zoo without causing any problem to the animals.”

Speaking at the function of the newly bought golf carts from a Bangalore-based company, Kumar said: “These vehicles are completely eco-friendly. They run on batteries, which have no emissions. Every visitor, who wants to take a ride on them, will have to pay a service charge of Rs 30 each. The carts will be running during the official hours of the zoo and their maximum speed will not exceed more than 5km per hour. The golf cart takes eight hours to be fully charged and after that, it can run for 80 km.”

On the launch date of the carts, Kumar said: “There is some groundwork left as some spots where the tracks of the toy train are laid need to made parallel to the golf carts’ paths to enable them to run smoothly. We have been thinking of introducing this service for the past three months on the demand of the zoo visitors. Such kind of facility is already there in the zoos in Delhi, Bhubaneswar and Mysore.”

On increasing the number of the golf carts, Kumar said: “In the first phase, we just ordered three. But we will increase the number of golf carts gauging the popularity of the service.”

Kumar also said that the boating facilities would soon become more fascinating.

“We are working on plans to introduce a floating platform for the boat lovers and the present boats would be replaced by the latest kind of boats.”

Prior to the golf carts, the zoo had introduced the system of hiring bicycles three months ago. It was another eco-friendly move. Now, hundreds of visitors hire bicycles for going around the zoo. Their fare is Rs 10 an hour.

Barring eco-friendly vehicles, all other modes of transport are banned in Patna zoo.