The garden department of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced a plan to spend an additional INR 2.50 crore to beautify the dividers on 20 city bridges. This comes after the BMC's expenditure of INR 44.64 crore last year on central medians and dividers.
The BMC has chosen bougainvillea plants for this beautification project. The choice is based on the plant's resilience and ability to withstand Mumbai's low Air Quality Index (AQI) readings. The BMC plans to install 2,000 pots of bougainvillea on the dividers of 20 flyovers starting next month.
The BMC's choice is supported by a study titled "Bougainvillea: A Pollution- and Drought-Tolerant Plant". The study was conducted by Suresh Chandra Sharma and Yogesh Kumar Sharma of the CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow.
The study highlights bougainvillea's ability to reduce air pollution and its resilience to vehicle pollution. The study claims, 'In addition to being an attractive addition to landscaping, bougainvillea is a pollution-tolerant plant that can aid in reducing air pollution. The plant can also withstand wind, salt, and drought. Bougainvillea glabra demonstrated resilience to stress in relation to vehicle pollution.'
However, the BMC's choice has been criticized. Activists have pointed out that the BMC plans to use potted plants instead of planting trees. This offers limited ecological benefits. Activists have also criticised the BMC's previous beautification attempts. They claimed that the flowering plants installed on the FoB pillars outside Jogeshwari Station last year had wilted.
Despite the criticism, the BMC is enthusiastic about the bougainvillaea pots. The bridges selected for this include the flyover from BKC to Vakola, the Western Express Highway, the Milan Flyover, the Magathane Flyover, the Lalbagh Flyover, the Sudhir Phadke Flyover, and the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road.
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