It has been over a year since work started on refurbishing the Government Aquarium in Cubbon Park.
No dates have been announced for the re-opening of the government aquarium in Cubbon Park as work continues on renovating it. According to news reports, the aquarium was all set to reopen in November.
The renovation work is currently being undertaken by Auctus Designs & Development(ADD), a private architecture firm who was subcontracted to undertake the construction work by the private company Namma Bengaluru Aquarium (NBA). ADD is a relatively younger, unlisted firm that seemingly shares one of its directors with NBA, namely, Pranav Nanda Kumar.
Nitesh, the architect working on-site said, “There have been delays with construction due to erratic weather patterns, which have and may continue to cause many setbacks. But the construction of the aquarium should be completed in another month’s time.”
The Cubbon Park area was subjected to heavy showers in May this year, which may have had an unfavourable impact on the projected time period for completion of this project.
“The structural health monitoring (SHM) of the structure can be severely affected by erratic weather conditions like heavy rains,” said Nethravarthy Chandravarkar, the principal architect of Elura Design, an architectural firm in Bangalore.
SHM is a process through which architects can track the approximated structural integrity of a building in real time. This helps them make critical decisions regarding construction to maintain the integrity of the structure.
Weather conditions can also affect glass installations and fabrication of building materials.“Glazing and fabrication are also adversely affected by severe weather conditions,” Nethravarthy added.
Nitesh said that the opening date would be up to the fisheries department to announce. He said that there may be inputs given by officials after the completion of the project.
The tender for the project under the public-private partnership model (PPP) was announced in April 2022 and was eventually contracted to the private company, Namma Bengaluru Aquarium. The company was incorporated after June 2022.
The aquarium had closed down for around a year to undergo revamps due to low visitor counts. It also had inadequately equipped life support systems for the fish. There was also a problem of weathering and damage to the walls and ceilings due to age, as the aquarium was nearly 40 years old. There are reports for plans of building a tunnel aquarium, as well as a Koi fish pond, touch screen displays and holographic walls.
