Come December, vertical gardens to adorn Chennai

CHENNAI: Installation of vertical gardens in 14 flyovers and grade separators across the city will be completed and ready for public view by December 15, according to Corporation officials. While the work at the Gandhi Mandapam road flyover in Adyar zone is just a few days away from completion, the other vertical gardens will be fully-installed by next month. 

“It would have been completed much sooner, but we had ordered for plants from places like Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, and there is a delay in transit. In any case, we will be finishing works by December 15,” said a corporation official working with the Bridges Department.

The locations that have been identified include the grade separators at Mint Junction, North Usman-Mahalingapuram Road Junction, South Usman-Duraisamy Road Junction, and on the piers under the flyovers in Doveton, Pantheon-Casa Major Road, Peters-Coronsmith Road, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai-TTK road, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai-Royapettah high road and Sardar Patel-LB road.  The project is worth `8.15 crore in total.

Works are being simultaneously undertaken in all 14 locations and almost 80 per cent of the task has been completed everywhere, said a senior corporation official. While a sewage treatment plant has already been installed in GN Chetty road, facilities have been made to water these new vertical gardens drawing sewage from the nearest sewer line, which will then be treated through a four-tier process. The gardens will be watered through drip irrigation method.