pune

Updated: Apr 03, 2018 15:01 IST

In its attempts to make Metro Rail greener, Maha-Metro has decided to develop vertical gardens on the pillars of the Metro in the city from the Pimpri-Chinchwad to Swargate corridor and from the Vanaz to Ramwadi corridor. The decision was taken to expand the green cover in the city and to fight air pollution.The work on the gardens are expected to begin soon.

According to Maha-Metro officials, the metro pillars in city will be covered by a mesh like frame, on which small pots with plants will be mounted. The rows of potted plants will give the pillars the appearance of a vertical garden.

Maha-Metro’s managing director, Brijesh Dixit said the Maha-Metro has already developed three sample vertical gardens on metro pillars in Nagpur."We have conducted successful trials in Nagpur and are now ready to implement the plan in Pune. For the vertical garden, we will use recycled water through a drip irrigation mechanism.In same places we plan to use hydroponics technology to save water. We have all the prerequisite machinery necessary to take care of the plants."

Sunil Mhaske, chief project manager of Maha-Metro said,"This step of creating vertical gardens on the pillars of the Metro in the city will help the city become green and clean. The Maha-Metro will create these vertical gardens at all the important pillars in the city."

The vertical garden will also help save on the cost of colouring the pillars, Mhaske added.

However, officials stated that this is not the first time that such vertical gardens are being built around metro pillars in the country. The Delhi Metro, Nagpur Metro, Bengaluru Metro and Kochi Metro have already adopted the concept, which was inspired from Metro projects in Mexico. In Bengaluru and Kochi, every fourth to sixth pillar sports a vertical garden while the other pillars are used for advertising.

The first phase of the project will cover a distance of 31.254 km, which includes the Pimpri-Chinchwad to Swargate corridor covering (16.6-km) and the Vanaz to Ramwadi corridor (14.7 km).The total cost will be Rs 11,420 crore. The World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank have approved a loan of Rs.6,325 crore for the project. The civic body, in its budget for 2016-17, also made a provision of Rs 67 crore for the Metro project.