State government to develop green spaces in urban areas

The state Municipal Affairs department has taken up several steps for creation and development of green space in urban areas at an estimated cost of around Rs 60 crore.

The schemes have been taken up as a part of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announced programme ‘Green City Clean City.’

The state government has allotted Rs 32 crore to develop 106 parks under green space development project in urban areas.

The work will be carried out by the municipal bodies with technical support from Municipal Engineering Directorate.

In 2015, the department took up development of 177 parks in 54 urban towns at an estimated cost of Rs 28 crore. The work is in the final stages and last minute touches are being given.

Once these 283 parks are completed and are thrown opened to the public it will cover 470 acre of new green space in urban areas.

Municipal Affairs department has developed 566 parks since 2011. It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had inaugurated two parks on Thursday during her visit to Hooghly district to attend the administrative review meeting.

The Milan Samity Park at Baidyabati covering an area of 518 sqm has been developed at Rs 10.28 lakh and another park at Raja KL Goswami Road in Serampore covering an area of 1061 sqm has been developed at the cost of Rs 20.72 lakh.

The boundary walls of all the parks have been repaired and the roads inside them have been repaired with paver block.

The greenery has been restored and sitting benches and playing equipment have been installed for children.

After coming to power in 2011, Banerjee held series of meetings with the Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim and asked him to increase the green cover.

Though the parks in the city under Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) have been developed, the parks in the districts were neglected.

Most of the parks became the den of anti-social activities and people never visited them. But once their development was taken up, more and more people are visiting them and almost in every park, morning walkers’ groups have been formed where people, mostly senior citizens meet every morning.

Banerjee had said in Thursday’s meeting that stress would be laid on eco tourism in Hooghly district. The bank along river Hooghly has tremendous potential and can attract both domestic and foreign tourists if properly developed.