Ghaziabad: Work on the Ghaziabad biodiversity park is ongoing and will be completed towards the end of this year, officials said. The park is spread over 62 acres in the middle of the city, and the ground levelling work has begun.“The area where the park is coming up used to be a water body, and before commencing work we had to fill it up. By year end, we hope that the work of developing the park will be over,” a Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation official said. The project is being built at a cost of Rs 15 crore and is funded under AMRUT 2.0. The state govt approved the project in July 2024. The project has been in the pipeline for nearly 10 years now, but was stalled for various reasons.The location of the park is at one of the busiest and most polluted areas of the city, near the Mahamaya Stadium. The park, once developed, will likely serve as a green lung that will help mitigate the effects of air pollution.The Uttar Pradesh govt’s share in the project is Rs 1.81 crore, the central govt’s share Rs 75.64 lakh, and the first instalment of Rs 2.57 crore was released. According to the detailed project report, the park will be equipped with an automatic irrigation system, costing Rs 6.54 crore, and a 40 KLD sewage treatment plant will also be set up at a cost of Rs 30 lakh. The park will draw power from solar energy, for which solar panels that will generate 60 kVA of electricity will be installed, requiring another Rs 30 lakh.Around 450 species of plants with fruit, flowers, and ornamentals will be planted in the park. These will include cycas, bamboo, orchids, and medicinal plants. It will also feature wetlands/lakes, observation mounds, lawns, water bodies, and recreation areas.“Recreational and wellness facilities—picnic spots and playgrounds, sports sections—jogger’s track, lotus pond lakes, plazas, recreation zones, zones of silence, exhibition areas, pavilion, yoga spaces, and a food court will also be set up,” the official quoted above added. It will have a pond spread over an area of 2.5 acres, while portions of the park will have a Rose Garden, Medicinal Udyan, Knowledge Garden, Vasant Vatika, Navgraha Vatika, Sharad Vatika, and Bal Vatika.
