BANGALORE: Parks in Bangalore, once known as the Garden City, have been steadily vanishing and little is being done to restore them.Nearly 10 months after the new council of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was elected, work at most of the parks is yet to start.
The Palike, in its budget last year, had earmarked Rs 159 crore for development and maintenance of parks in the city. From that, Rs 37 crore was to be spent on horticulturerelated works for the 455 parks in the city."There are 1,140 parks in the city," said a BBMP official in the Horticulture department on condition of anonymity. He said out of them, 778 were developed and 362 still needed work.
Parks need immediate attention
Many of the parks need immediate attention as disasters are waiting to happen at these places.In November 2009, a twoyearold boy was killed when a bench at a park tipped over suddenly. Diganth was sitting on the bench with his father and was killed in the accident.
The family blamed and residents of the area blamed the Palike for negligence and the poor quality of work done by the officials.
The victim's family, which staged a protest a week ago, have alleged that no action was taken against the erring officials for constructing such a bench at the park.
Fewer visitors
Lal Bagh and Cubbon Park are arguably the biggest and the most popular parks in the city that attract visitors and tourists from in and around the city.
But with the increasing traffic and infrastructural changes, the number of people visiting these parks have decreased over time.Future plansIn an effort to ensure convenience and to retain the tag of garden city, the BBMP took up the task of developing the existing parks and creating some new ones.Rain Water Harvesting was also to be ensured at the parks but so far only 50 parks have this facility.The BBMP has proposed to set up another 130 units by the end of 2011.