Parks and citizens

Parks and citizens
Residents’ welfare associations and business houses have transformed many of the city's parks into pretty lung spaces, The Times of India

One can say that Bangalore is living up to its sobriquet of 'The Garden City'. The city boasts of 630 parks in different localities. Much of the credit goes to the huge manpower in terms of gardeners the city has. However, since the city grew in all directions, the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) had a major task of attending to providing civic amenities to Bangaloreans. This prompted the BCC to come out with a novel programme of inviting the corporate sector, companies, institutions, resident's forums and other philanthropists to adopt the city's parks for a period of three years at a time. The PPP scheme was introduced in the year 2000 as a pilot project by the BCC.

Since then, the BCC has handed over 244 projects that include boulevards, traffic islands, circles, medians, footpaths and parks in all the three zones of the city. The result - the projects speak for themselves and they increase the aesthetics of the city. It also projects the efficiency of the sponsors in handling these projects. Some of the traffic islands and circles add a touch of green elegance. Neatly maintained carpet lawns, decorative plants and flowers adorn these places.

T R P Naidu, secretary of R T Nagar Residents' Welfare Association says, "the park we have adopted to maintain is very dear to us. We have even fought a case to retain it as a park. Today with the help of the BCC we have entered the PPP scheme. We have installed a fountain, landscaped the park and also sunk a bore well and installed a water pump. It's our only lung space here".

Vishal Bali, Vice President, Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute says, "we believe that we have certain responsibilities towards the city. It will also reduce that much of burden on the BCC. We intend to do much more and we are looking forward in this direction. Now that Bangalore is an international destination we have to attract more and more foreigners so it is necessary for us to tie-up with local bodies to give the city a face lift".

A senior BCC Horticulture officer says, "we are happy that the PPP is a successful programme. Parks maintained by organisations are excellent. We have some more projects to be handed over and we are on it. The PPP programmes offer an opportunity to participate in taking Bangalore forward. They allow the private sector to demonstrate best practices in upgrading civic amenities, beautification and maintenance of parks. And they enhance the spirit of partnership and cooperation between the citizens and civic bodies.