LAHORE: Lahorites will be offered a thrilling experience at the Lahore Zoo as its doors will be open for visitors at night too from the next month, and they will also be entertained with live music performances and puppet shows on weekends.

Punjab Wildlife and Parks Department Director General Mobeen Elahi told Dawn on Sunday that Lahore Zoo was going to introduce night zoo visits, most probably from February.

He said certain sections of the zoo will be opened for the visitors at night, including lion enclosures, Reptile House, fish aquariumand Hologram Zoo. During the night hours, ambiance lighting will be illuminating the food court, lake, trees and the hill located inside the zoo, he added.

He said the children visiting the night zoo will also be entertained by puppet shows.

Mr Elahi said the zoo food court would be revamped and later outsourced to some international food chain, while bids from local food vendors have also been invited through a tendering process. He said the night zoo will remain open to visitors till 9pm, except Saturdays and Sundays, when the entry ticket will be costlier as puppet shows and live music performances will be held on weekends.

To a question about the night zoo activities` impact on the zoo animals, as they might be stressed because of the noise and lighting, Mr Elahi said that keeping this in view, only certain sections of the zoo housing nocturnal animals would be opened after dark.

To another question about the affordability of zoo visit for the public, given the introduction of tickets of varying amounts for different facilities, the director general said that the entry fee was just Rs100, and visitors could roam the entire zoo by paying this amount.

He said the night zoo ticket prices, especially for weekends, is yet to be determined by the wildlife department.

Currently, besides the Rs100 per person entry fee, different facilities such as hologram zoo, reptile house and fish aquarium have additional tickets.

Sources say that the concept of the night zoo has been taken from Singapore zoo.