Vertical gardens to fight air pollution

Patna: The Bihar Rajya Pul Nirman Nigam Limited (BRPNNL) has begun executing a plan to equip the pillars of the city’s flyovers with vertical gardens consisting of air-purifying plants to curb air pollution.

Pillar number 89 of Raja Bazaar flyover, where for the first time the concept of a vertical garden has been implemented in Bihar, is a source of amusement for commuters and plant lovers, who cannot but stop and admire the vertical garden.

Officials of the company undertaking the installation said indoor air-purifying plants such as Mahatma, set flora, the sun of India, haze and snake plants and other varieties have been used so that people can breathe fresh air while it will also help bring down temperatures in and around the flyover.

Such plants are brought from Calcutta while the pots are procured from Pune. The vertical garden concept has already been tested in Noida, Pune and Bengaluru where it was lauded by the public. “At present, we have implemented the vertical garden concept on pillar number 89 of Raja Bazaar flyover. Our company has geared up to complete the installation process on all 93 pillars of the bridge,” said Shashi Kumar Verma, director of Nilgiri Publicity, the company implementing the project.

Around 2,000 plants of different varieties have been installed under an iron structure for safety on the flyover during the project’s first phase.

Shashi said that the company acquired approvals for three years and would bear the entire cost of installation and maintenance of the vertical garden during the period. “As soon as all pillars at Raja Bazaar flyover are equipped with this facility we will shift our attention towards Station road flyover, for which approval from the urban development department is under process,” Shashi said.

According to a WHO report, Patna was ranked 5th in the list of most polluted cities in the world in 2018 while Gaya and Muzaffarpur were ranked fourth and ninth.

Courtesy: The Telegraph