HEENA MAHAJAN – Delhi
Delhi-based Bhasin Group, in collaboration with Singapore based leisure and tourism attraction company, Andover Leisure will be inaugurating the integrated tourism and hospitality project, Grand Venice, in Greater Noida by this year end. The mega project, with a built-up space of four million square feet, will host India’s first underwater world and aquarium, Blue Planet. The complex will also house entertainment facilities, a hotel, food courts, shopping malls and corporate offices. The entire project involves an investment of approximately Rs 750 crore.
According to SS Bhasin, managing director, Bhasin Group, all components except the hotel will be ready within eight months from now. “The hotel, a 270-key Sheraton, will take another eight to ten months to be operational,” he said. Grand Venice will also have 1.2 million square feet of retail space along with a cineplex and a gaming zone.
The aquarium, spread across 1,00,000 square feet, will showcase live aquatic flora and fauna. The major exhibits at the aquarium will include sharks, lion fish, jellyfish, etc. The shark exhibit will also have recreational glass boats to make it educational and interactive. Trained personnel, dressed as mermaids or mermen will enthrall visitors with choreographed underwater pyrotechnics in combination with music and light.
Talking about the replication of international public aquariums, Sindu Zhang Huihan, president, Andover Group stated, “Many of the exhibits will follow a combination of terrestrial and oceanic themes. Along with this, exhibits carry a particular geographical theme that is both educational and recreative in its function to visitors without compromising on aesthetics.”
