Civic plan to turn city green with vertical gardens & more

GURUGRAM: Installing street furniture and sculptures, cleaning roads, pruning trees, planting creepers along major roads and fruit trees in parks are some of the plans that have been finalised under the corporation’s ‘Green Plan’.
A meeting on the plan, chaired by Anand Mohan Sharan, principal secretary, urban local bodies, Haryana government, was held in the city on Saturday morning.

It has been decided that green belts will be developed along the city’s major roads. A couple of these roads are the ones connecting Atul Kataria Chowk to the Gurugram bus stand and Atul Kataria Chowk to the Delhi border, among many others.

MCG said in an official release on Saturday that construction waste along all major roads would be cleared and some stretches would get street furniture, along with trees.

“We are planning to plant nearly 10,000 trees in parks across the city, of which 5,000 will be fruit trees such as Ber, Imli, Jamun, and Bel. Additionally, we also intend to plant 1.5 lakh shrubs in the stretches between the roads and the parks,” said Sharan.

He added that intersections and land islands would also be beautified with vertical gardens.

Taking the example of Delhi, Sharan said that at many places in the national capital, creepers have been planted along roads while at others, planters have been hung from road side railings and that a similar design could also be executed in Gurugram. Sharan added, “We also need to map parks and green belts in the city, which are currently being maintained by developers or private companies or other organisations, and develop a sense of shared responsibility among these parties. We are also mulling over installation of sculptures at multiple public spaces.”

Several MCG officials, including MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav and officials from the horticulture department, also attended the meeting. The proposal of installing sewage treatment plants in parks to meet their water requirement was also discussed at the meeting. Another meeting on the ‘Green Plan’ was held on Friday between the GMDA and MCG officials.

According to officials who attended the meeting, MCG is likely to take up the responsibility of maintaining parks while discussions are still on about areas along roads. In an earlier meeting, it had been decided that MCG would take up the responsibility of roads under its jurisdiction while GMDA would look after the ones under its jurisdiction.

“A look at the map of the city reveals that most of the roads are under GMDA. So, we are still deciding on whether those will be under the care of both MCG and GMDA, or GMDA alone,” said an official, requesting anonymity.