Sunday, April 5, 2015

Nurseries on Canal Banks

In a recent meeting in Hidco, I discussed a new model for greening certain areas of New Town. Since taking care of saplings involve watering, protecting from cattle and theft, de-weeding, pruning etc call for a set of gardeners and managers, we can create economic opportunities by engaging farms who raise nurseries for commercial purposes. In fact, in North 24-Paraganas, close to Action Area 2, there exist a series of traditional plant nurseries and more often than not greening resources of New Town are sourced from these units. In South 24-Paraganas, there are flower plantations from where much of Kolkata's flower markets draw sustenance. So we may get flowers and plants in designated areas of New Town which will green it and also be a revenue earner rather than an expense maker. For ease of getting water for the nurseries, I have thought of Bagjola Canal Bank in Action Area I where we have already initiated some plantations.
Here is a picture of a bridge being built on the Bagjola Canal in Action Area 3. As I watched on Friday afternoon, the fourth 65 ton steel girder was being placed  on the bridge pillars.

Steel girders being placed on third Bagjola Bridge
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Here is a clipping from today's paper:

Khabar 365 dt 5 April 2015

4 comments:

  1. Dear Sir,

    Setting up nurseries / flower beds along the canal banks is really a great initiative.
    Currently vast stretches of the canal banks in action area-I are encroached upon by slum dwellers, makeshift toilets on stilts (directly polluting the canal water). Hopefully steps will be taken to rectify the situation and clean-up the canal - and possibly open it up to water transportation in the future.

    Regards,
    Sudipta.

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  2. Dear Mr Sen,

    Great idea of having nursery to restore the greenery at canal banks.
    On the similar lines, is there also plan of restoring the canal bank roads. Like widening, repairing etc.
    Also, since a long time there is incomplete bridge on either side of MAR near Jatragachi, is there any plan of connecting that.

    Thanks,
    Rohit

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  3. Great work sir.....
    thnx
    RAHUL KUMAR handycap

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Sir.

    - Diptadeep Das ( Urban Designer )

    ReplyDelete