State proposes oceanarium at Dwarka coast

In a bid to increase awareness among people about diverse underwater flora and fauna,the Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC) has sent a proposal to the Centre for building an oceanarium on the Dwarka coast in Jamnagar district. “We have a vast coastline of 1,600 km and diverse sea creatures and corals. However,awareness is very low among the people and that is the reason we have proposed to build an oceanarium,” said GEC Director C H Pandya. “We have submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Environment for building an oceanarium under the Marine Research and Information Centre to be set up at Dwarka under the Central Government scheme of Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project.” The GEC had proposed to establish the oceanarium after a pre-feasibility study conducted by KPMG gave a positive response.