Good news for the young and the young-at-heart.

The toy train at Patna zoo, which has been out of order for the past two months, is all set to resume operations within a couple of days. Zoo officials, along with those from East Central Railway, held a joint inspection of its tracks on Friday to carry out the required repair work.

The zoo officials had stopped the operations of the toy train from September 1 to carry out periodical maintenance work. Later, an attempt was made to resume the services from October 7 but the train derailed at the western corner of the zoo following and the date was deferred.

'We had changed several wheels and seats of the toy train during maintenance. However, following its derailment on October 7, we sought assistance from the divisional railway manager (DRM), Danapur, to repair the tracks. Two rounds of inspections were carried out thereafter. A technical team inspected the tracks today (Friday) as well. It would try to run the train tomorrow (Saturday) by making temporary repairs on the tracks. Intensive restoration work would be done later,' said S. Chandrashekhar, director, Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park.

The four-bogey toy train was inaugurated on October 2, 2004, by then railways minister Lalu Prasad. The train passes through 4368m tracks along animal enclosures, two lakes and botanical area among other parts of the zoo at Rs 10 per child and Rs 15 per adult.

The master plan for Patna zoo (2012-2032) envisages that the tracks should pass the front side of the enclosures. Zoo director Chandrashekhar said they were mulling to change the course of the tracks at the zoo's western corner around the new lake as most of the incidents of derailment of the toy train occur in that area.

Tree pruning

Zoo authorities are also pruning trees, which fall in the airport approach funnel. 'Acting on requests from Airports Authority of India, we prune trees twice a year, pre- and post-monsoon. We have started pruning several tress obstructing the approach funnel path the airport,' he said.