Setting its foot forward to curb air pollution in the city, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is to plant 25 lakh saplings on the city’s footpaths. According to the mayor, the city’s air quality is at dangerous levels. Considering the situation, the civic body is mulling plans to take a host of steps to increase the greenery in the city. Apart from initiatives like urban forestry, the KMC has now shifted its focus towards enhancing the green cover on the city’s roads and footpaths.
As the level of carbon dioxide is high at these places, KMC has decided to write to the Metro authorities to use Metro pillars for setting up vertical gardens instead of using those for advertisement. The civic body would also urge the other bodies, including KMDA and HRBC to set up similar vertical gardens on city’s crucial flyovers, including Maa flyover.
Apart from this, the KMC is also mulling over setting up hollow paver blocks instead of concretizing them to allow seepage of water. This would not only improve the water table but will also enhance greenery and prevent illegal parking at many places. For this, the pavements would be elevated by a few inches so that cars are not parked there. To increase the greenery, the civic body would plant 25 lakh saplings of Deodar tree on the footpaths. The planting is to start in March.