Aqua Marine Park 
Background
Karnataka state budget 2007-08 has identified need for development of world-class tourism activities at different locations in the state, including Mangalore. Development of an Aqua Marine Park at Tannir Bavi beach in Mangalore on Public-private Partnership (PPP) basis is proposed as part of this initiative. KSIIDC has been appointed as nodal agency to develop this project on PPP basis.
About Mangalore
Mangalore- capital of Dakshin Karnataka district is one of the important urban centers of coastal Karnataka. The city is a prominent business centre and commercial hub for the state having strong business linkages with Bangalore, Mumbai and Kerala in India and with gulf countries abroad. Mangalore has population of about 9 lakhs persons having decadal growth rate of about 20%. The city is well connected having an airport (domestic flights and direct flights to gulf countries), national highway and railway linkages.Mangalore is an upcoming tourist destination. The city is well located to become a tourism hub for coastal tourism circuit. Mangalore is used by tourists visiting Karwar beaches, Ullal and the religious centre for Udipi among other destinations of coastal Karnataka currently due to its excellent connectivity. Mangalore has very few tourist attractions, as of now, but has huge potential to emerge as tourism hub owing to its location, terrain, beaches and rivers surrounding the city. Mangalore’s tourism potential can be unleashed by developing unique and world-class tourism projects in and around city. Development of an Aqua Marine Park displaying exotic marine bio-diversity will be a major trigger for promoting Mangalore as a prominent tourist destination.
Aqua Marine Park as a Tourist Attraction
Aqua Marine Parks have become major tourists’ attractions worldwide. Successful examples of Aqua Marine Parks are Santosa Island, Singapore; Sydney Aquarium, Australia; National Aquarium at Plymouth, UK and Monterey Bay at California, USA. On an average each these Aqua Parks attract about 1 million tourists every year. A state-of-the-art Aqua Marine Park will become an iconic tourist attraction for Mangalore, promote the city as major tourist destination and act as significant economic stimulus.Proposed Aqua Marine Park
The proposed Aqua Marine Park or Marine Aquarium will be designed to artificially create and exhibit marine environment in its near-exact form, including fishes and species of other marine organisms in sea-water tanks in controlled conditions. The Aqua Marine Park can have several live exhibits depicting different sea conditions of like ‘Deep Sea’, ‘Coral Reefs’, ‘Continental Shelf’, etc. Tourists and visitors will have the views of different marine creatures in their natural habitat forms. The Aqua Marine Park will also act as a centre for generating and propagating awareness about marine environment and imparting knowledge. The Aqua Marine Park will be developed as integrated centre as Tourist attraction, marine environment awareness centre and will have other recreational facilities like restaurants, theme park, merchandise shops, etc. The proposed Aqua Marine Park ill have following facilities:
- Acrylic marine exhibits in terms of tanks to display different marine environment and its bio-diversity
- Static Marine Exhibits
- Quarantine and life support systems
- Visitor circulation areas
- Research centre and training halls for conducting environmental awareness including AV halls and amphitheater
- Recreation facilities like restaurants, plaza, eateries, souvenirs shops, etc.
- Amenities like, parking, circulation, parks and garden
