To improve air quality and greenery in the city, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) approved a proposal to put up vertical gardens at important points across the city. With the estimated cost of Rs 88 lakh, around 3 lakh saplings will be planted in Gurgaon. Gurgaon News
This development came after Gurgaon was declared as the most polluted city on Sunday. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had put up air monitoring stations at 62 cities.
“Air pollution has been a major issue and, taking cognizance of this, the MCG has decided to create vertical gardens at crucial traffic junctions and plant three lakh saplings to help Gurugram breathe better,” said Yashpal Yadav, MCG commissioner.
The proposal was discussed at the MCG House meeting held on July 25. The officials and councillors gave the in-principle nod to the proposal.
As per the MCG officials, the idea was taken from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). While on an official tour of Bengaluru in 2016, then MCG additional commissioner Amit Khatri got impressed by the gardens in the city and then suggested officials to take note of it.
Now, the vertical gardens are going to become reality in Gurgaon. The hydroponic plants, which do not need soil, will be planted. There will be a facility of the automated dripping system which is capable of distributing water equally to all the plants.
The officials said that for the vertical gardens, herbs such as basil, cilantro, coriander, fennel, lavender, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary and thyme, apart from tomatoes, cucumber and all varieties of flowers will be used.
They added that these plants will help in decreasing carbon emissions and noise pollution by acting as sound barriers.
The vertical gardens are likely to be installed on the Metro pillars located along the Golf Course Road-Cyber City stretch and Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road-Huda City Centre stretch, as well as on the pillars of flyovers at Subash Chowk.
Further, the civic body will coordinate with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to install these at key junctions — Shankar Chowk, IFFCO Chowk, Signature Towers, Rajiv Chowk and Hero Honda Chowk — on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.
This was not the first occasion when MCG officials have taken cues from the BBMP. They had also made mandatory for residents to plant trees in front of their houses. They said that the number of trees planted should be in accordance with the size of the plots.
Vertical gardens are not new to Delhi-NCR. It has also been erected at many places in the national capital.
