Citizens' demand met: Bengaluru's 1,200 parks to remain open to public 17 hours a day

Bengaluru: All 1,200 neighbourhood parks in Bengaluru will remain open from 5 am to 10 pm. That’s 17 hours a day. Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar made the announcement on Tuesday.

Shivakumar, who also holds the Bengaluru development portfolio, directed the municipal body to fix all dysfunctional street lights and deploy security personnel to guard open spaces.

“Parks are currently open during certain hours of the day. There was a request to keep these public places open even in the afternoon. Parks used to be open only from 5 am and 10 am and from 1:30 pm to 8 pm. Henceforth, all parks will remain open from 5 am to 10 pm,” he said.

Extending the park timings was a long-pending demand of citizens as they did not subscribe to the BBMP’s argument that parks will become a den of anti-social activities. There was also a concern that students would bunk the classes and kill time in these parks in the afternoons when there are fewer walkers.

Shivakumar dismissed these concerns of parks being “misused” but did not elaborate further. He went on to say that the extension by three hours will help people who are working but are not able to use the park owing to the present timings.

On the concern of parks being misused by youngsters, the Bengaluru minister said one cannot stop anyone. “When you were young, I do not know what you were doing,” he quipped while responding to a reporter.

He, however, promised to fix dysfunctional streetlights in all parks. “We have also fixed cameras at the entrances of all parks,” Shivakumar said.

Mapathon

Shivakumar launched a mapathon where the BBMP wants to actively involve local community members to identify potential green spaces on empty sites.

“A pilot is currently being conducted in the Bommanahalli zone. We will publish more details on the BBMP website soon,” he said.

Commenting on the progress of the tree census, the Bengaluru development minister said a total of 94,000 trees had been enumerated so far. “We have completed two wards in the Bommanahalli Zone, namely Vidyapeeta and Kathriguppe. The survey will be completed by the end of this year.”

The BBMP wants to involve more schools and children to reach the target of planting two lakh saplings this year. The Dy CM said the BBMP planted 52,000 saplings last year by involving 250 schools.