Tulips to be planted at DDA parks this winter

This winter season, tulip bulbs are set to be planted in Delhi Development Authority parks across the city, officials in lieutenant governor VK Saxena’s office said on Tuesday — the first time that these flowers will be planted outside New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) areas in the Capital.

The officials said that tulips will be planted in 65 locations across Delhi, while other winter flowers, such as petunia, salvia, cineraria, antirrhinum, poppy, verbena, dianthus, hollyhock, nasturtium, coreopsis, pansy, and lianum will be planted at 91 places in the city.

The tulips are set to be planted in DDA areas such as Baansera, Asita, and at least 18 parks where statues of heroes of the freedom struggle were installed, and in NDMC areas such as Shanti Path, Talkatora Garden, Windsor Place, Central Park (Connaught Place), Mandi House, Akbar Road, Chanakyapuri, Lodhi Garden and Nehru Park.

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In a first, 500 tulip bulbs have also been planted at Raj Niwas.

“This winter season, the number of tulips planted in the Capital will be double the 150,000 planted last year in the New Delhi area. 300,000 tulip bulbs have been procured at the instructions of LG Saxena, of which 100,000 are for DDA parks and 200,000 are for NDMC areas,” a senior official said, declining to be named.

Saxena, as the lieutenant governor, is the chairman of DDA.

An NDMC official said that 200,000 lakh tulip bulbs are being planted in New Delhi areas, and the civic body is working as per the directions of the LG.

According to officials in the LG office, Saxena had earlier in March issued instructions to double the number of tulips to be sourced and planted this season. They said the LG had taken up the matter of sourcing tulips with his counterparts in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as well as the Himachal Pradesh government, and had asked NDMC to source the flowers from within the country — rather than importing them — to encourage and boost indigenous suppliers, and to ensure cost cutting in procurement.

READ | NDMC to procure 200,000 tulip bulbs, most ever

In November, NDMC had established a unit of the foreign flowers at Lodhi Garden. According to officials at the civic body, almost 54,000 imported tulip bulbs were harvested this year, of which 52,000 have been sent to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology in Palampur for further research. 2,000 bulbs are currently in the two chambers at the Lodhi Garden unit.