Three years after the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) conducted a beautification drive along two stretches in the city under the Green Raahgiri initiative, there is little evidence left of the effort put in — the saplings are dead, cycle lane have been razed and the footpaths are broken. As the two stretches have lapsed into their earlier state of disrepair, the MCG has said it does not plan to start the drive again.

In 2016, the agency planted over 1,000 saplings, created cycle lanes, installed open-air gyms and built footpaths along a 1.2km stretch on Bhagwan Mahaveer Marg, from Ramada Hotel to Kanhai village and a 1.5km stretch on St Thomas Marg, from Sector-53 near Genpact Chowk to Paras Hospital.

Today, the saplings have withered, the plastic bollards demarcating cycle lanes have been removed and the lane has turned into an illegal auto-rickshaw stand, and all the equipment from the open air gyms has either been stolen or destroyed. The footpaths, too, are in a state of disrepair and riddled with manholes, many of which are open.

Residents, however, said these issues started cropping up barely three weeks after the work was completed on February 7 and 14, respectively.

“I was excited about the Green Raahgiri initiative at St Thomas Marg as it is close to my residence. Since they built a footpath I started going out for morning walks. However, within weeks, the footpath’s surface started crumbling, garbage dumping started and manholes emerged. I had to stop using the stretch and went back to walking inside my condominium,” DLF-5 resident Aniket Kapoor said.

At the time of initiating the drive, the MCG had said these measures would be replicated on all roads across Gurugram to increase the city’s green cover, encourage residents to switch from motor vehicles to cycling or walking as last-mile commute and promote good health. The MCG had finalised two more stretches, from Subhash Chowk to Bakhtawar Chowk, and the Mall Mile, for the initiative. But work was postponed because of the Happening Haryana Global Investors Summit on March 7-8 and Haryanavi Parvasi Sammellan on March 7-9, and is yet to be resumed.

“We do not plan to start any new Green Raahgiri drives at the moment. However, the salient features of it are being replicated across the city. Over the past year, the MCG has installed more than 40 open-air gyms, and is also in the process of rectifying green belts,” MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav said.

Environmentalists said the problem with the MCG is it sets unreal targets and falls short on maintenance.Vaishali Rana Chandra, an environmentalist, said, “The MCG needs to focus on small targets instead of extravagant projects. Only then there will be any scope of success.

The MCG has undertaken many such plantation drives where the survival rate of sapling has been less than 95%. Drives, such as Green Raahgiri, are a drain on public resources. In addition, the MCG has been trying to establishing cycle lanes in the city for nearly a decade. The MCG will only be able to maintain the initiatives if it allocates 50% of its annual budget for the maintenance of existing amenities.”

Meanwhile, MCG officials said they have learnt many lessons from what became of the two stretches, including the importance of roping in residents and residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) for the maintenance and success of such initiatives.

To this end, even though the two open-air gyms started in 2016 are no longer functioning, the civic body has established 45 similar gyms across its 35 wards at a cost of Rs 1 crore, and handed over their maintenance to the local RWAs.

The residents’ bodies have, so far, managed to ensure the safety and upkeep of the equipment. With this, the MCG has received more requests from RWAs of privately developed areas, gated societies and residential sectors for installing open-air gyms in their neighbourhoods.

MCG commissioner said the agency is also looking to tie-up with private companies, MNCs and educational institutions to maintain green belts in the city under the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative.

“The MCG is negotiating with many private companies for maintaining green belts under CSR. The companies will be responsible for planting and maintaining the saplings. Instead of using CSR funds for different purposes, we thought of channelising it for one concentrated purpose. Green belts will help reduce air pollution,” Yadav said.

First Published: Mar 25, 2019 03:59 IST