Joyride set to begin, again

Bokaro, March 11: Plagued by frequent breakdowns, the toy train at Bokaro zoo is set to start services full steam with a private firm taking over its maintenance.

A major attraction at the Jawaharlal Nehru Zoological Park here, the train is extremely popular among thousands of children who visit the park from within and outside the state. But, of late, the train has had a poor run, having plied for a little over 30 days in the last six months due to poor maintenance.

The Bokaro steel plant, which looks after the zoo, spends over Rs 24 lakh on its upkeep. It has now decided to outsource the train’s operations and maintenance to Astha Engineering Works, Chas, for two years at a cost of Rs 2.44 lakh.

The company will now be allowed to charge Rs 5 per person per ride.

The decision to outsource the maintenance of the train was taken after the plant management received serious complaints from school children and their parents over the past six months about frequent technical snags caused by poor mainte- nance and irregular supply of fuel.

“Seeing that there was a huge demand for regular services of the train from children and their parents, we decided to hand over the maintenance to a private firm for two years with a rider that if the work wasn’t found satisfactory, the contract will be cancelled,” G. Chakravarty, the park in-charge, told The Telegraph.

The idea for a toy train at Bokaro zoo came from a similar venture at the Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Park of Patna where the train — its engine was bought from Mysore 25 years ago — is still running successfully.

Chakravarty said it was important to resume uninterrupted services of the toy train as Bokaro zoo, with over 100 varieties of animals, birds and fish, is an extremely popular destination for visitors, who come from as far as Purulia and Asansol in Bengal, and the nearby areas of the coal belt, Maithon, Koderma, Giridih, Hazaribagh and Ramgarh.

The train, which was set up 10 years ago on fixed tracks, starts its 500-metre journey from near the main gate and goes past cages housing tigers, lions, leopards, a panther, crocodiles, a hippopotamus, peacock, deer, bear, pelicans, cranes and monkeys, through medicinal trees, a rose garden, artificial check dams, before coming back to the starting point.