GHMC goes Green

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (North Zone) is taking up 20 'Greening' projects in the Secunderabad area and has plans to complete them by the first week of March.
The proposed 'works' include new parks and greening of the medians in select localities of Secunderabad.
 According to the officials, several new parks are in the offing. The areas, which will be getting new parks, are; Alwal, with seven parks at an estimated cost of 34.4 lakh and Malkajgiri, two parks at the cost of 11 lakh. Qutubullapur circle will also be getting five parks at the cost of 34 lakh soon. The proposed sites for parks had been identified by the GHMC as the ones having the least green cover.
Other 'greening' projects being undertaken by the authorities include renovating central medians at Ranigunj, plantation drive under Sithaphalmandi flyover and at the Chilkalguda Traffic Island. "This is a part of the GHMC proposal to increase greenery and to provide basic amenities like parks in our zone," said P V Bhagya Laxmi, assistant director of Horticulture, North Zone.
She also exhorted the citizens to be careful while crossing the medians and traffic islands while the greening work is going on. "Trespassing and trampling of plants is what bothers us. People should understand that greenery survives only if everyone cares for the plants," she added.
It is nearly after ten years since Government took any active steps to beautify roads and increase the number of parks in Secunderabad. The steps for greening of the area being taken by the GHMC are thus all the more important.
Medians were filled with soil and saplings were planted for most of the roads under the schemes launched at that time. However, the scheme failed to live up to expectations.
According to the officials, a number of medians and traffic islands have been prepared to plant saplings of special varieties that consume less water. Prickly species have been chosen so that people do not trample over them.
 The Government nurseries in Jubilee Hills, Indira Park, Rajendranagar and Kukatpally are being utilized for this purpose. "As we develop plants in our own nurseries, the cost incurred goes down," said E N Srinivasulu, Director, Urban Forestry,GHMC. Bougainvillea, Jetropa, Nandivardanam, Acalifa are some of the varieties being planted in the stretches.
"This is a good measure to plant varieties that would consume less water, but I doubt that these varieties will help reduce pollution on our roads", feels K Subhash, a resident of Maredpally.
However, the authorities are confident that these plant varieties, which can withstand varied weather conditions, will be able to reduce pollution on roads as well. We at Cityplus hope so as well.

The project
• GHMC earmarks sites for parks at localities with the least green cover and number of parks.
• Ranigunj, Sithaphalmandi flyover and Chilkalguda Traffic Island to get a makeover.

--Md Nizamuddin