The latest addition to the annual Independence Day Flower Show at Lalbagh is proving to be a crowd favourite. Namma Metro’s Lalbagh station on the recently opened Green Line is helping bring visitors from across the city to the flower show while also helping the residents of Basavanagudi and Jayanagar avoid seeing the ugly line of cars parked in their vicinity that plague them every flower show.
Thrown open to the public last Friday, close to one lakh visitors made it to the popular flower show on Saturday and Sunday, according to park officials. This is roughly a 30% jump in footfall from the previous year. A large section of these visitors chose to use the metro leaving the area around Lalbagh relatively free of vehicles, officials said.
An annual event, the flower show this year focuses on Rashtrakavi Kuvempu.
On Saturday, more than 23,000 passengers used the Lalbagh station, which usually sees a few thousand passengers on any given regular day. The Saturday before the flower show saw around 3,800 passengers use the station (till 9 p.m.).
The ridership, a nearly six-fold increase, remained steady on Sunday and Monday as well. On Sunday, the Lalbagh station saw 10,890 visitors compared to 4,286 the previous Sunday. On Monday, the station saw 4,560 visitors compared to 2,897 the previous Monday. “The first weekend itself saw a swell of visitors and the ticketed footfall was nearly 90,000. With passes and other free-entry, this number rose to nearly a lakh. We had a gate collection of nearly ₹40 lakh,” said Chandrashekar M.R., Deputy Director, Gardens, Lalbagh.
For commuters, the ease of access provided by the metro is unbeatable by private transport.
“The only thing easier is to take a taxi and get down at the Lalbagh main gate. However, the price would be too high. When we visited the flower show last year, finding a parking space was a major headache and also time consuming. This time around travelling to Lalbagh and returning was a breeze — thanks to Namma Metro,” Bhavish M.S., a resident of Indiranagar, said.
Buoyed by the numbers, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) officials are also helping guide the passengers with signage put up by the Horticulture Department as well as BMRCL. With one more weekend to go before the show ends, BMRCL officials are expecting the rush to continue.
Litter quantum gets bigger
A higher footfall also means larger volumes of litter. “We saw three tractors of waste collection daily (equivalent to 3 tonnes) from Friday to Sunday, about 20 % higher compared to the last show in January. But weekdays have one tractor of waste collected,” Chandrashekar M. R., Deputy Director, Gardens, Lalbagh, said. With litter management becoming a concern with the footfall increasing and many noticing litter outside the bins, the Horticulture Department and Lalbagh officials had put in place an “at source segregation system” and appointed volunteers through NGOs Hasiru Dala and Beautiful Bengaluru.
But this year is different. “The flower show this year has maximum volunteers from Lions Club and Rotary, while 200 of them are doing the job of not just creating awareness on litter, but are being part of the cleaning and advising forum, orally guiding visitors, personally handling the old and people lost at the park, and supplying drinking water to lakhs of people — all free of cost,” Mr. Chandrashekar added.
As far as bins are concerned, Lalbagh has nearly 300 permanent bins of 150 litre capacity each and 100 more of 250 litre capacity each have been added, officials said, adding that they are looking at a bulk of about 22 tractors of brimmed-up litter at the end of the 12-day show.
The waste segregation at source will be done once in two days and will look at nearly 25,000 kg of dry and wet litter. “We have 120 boards in all that advise visitors on litter segregation , disposal, among other things. Also, security staff have been given the power to impose a fine of ₹50 on visitors/vendors if they violate litter laws. We are ensuring that the waste reaching the landfill is totally avoided,” said M. Jagadeesh, Joint Director, Horticulture, Parks and Gardens.
Apart from 25,000 kg of wet and dry waste collected during the flower show, there would be 200 kg of dry flower and leaf waste generated from 2,800 trees and 10,000 potted plants. Also, there would be 10 lakh used roses from the Glass House after the Kuvempu exhibits see three changeovers during the show.
