However, general landscaping of medians, road rotaries, road flanks etc are developed mostly through local skills. Engineers and forest officials have contributed. Now, I thought, that inputs from few specialists are required.
Earlier, Hidco had advertised for appointment of landscape-architects on contract. But there weren't too many applicants and the interview panel did not recommend any applicant even from those who had applied. So, now we have just invited agencies to implement landscape concepts on the ground. Three stretches have been identified. The advertisements have appeared in a few newspapers today. Here is a clipping from Times of India:
Sir,
ReplyDeleteThis is actually a very good step. Hopefully, this will give a professional touch to the medians, dividers and rotaries.
However in our country, maintenance is a big challenge once the implementation is over because of lack of civic sense among the mass and also because of the dust. At least in New Town, do we have any plans to start sweeping the roads as well as washing the roads at least once a day? Plus all along the pavements at regular intervals we need to keep decorative dustbins like the ones we find in any developed country.
Nice to hear that you have thought about these aesthetic aspects of choosing the right plants to be planted in the medians and sidewalks. I was disappointed to see the median from SDF to Technopolis with only dusted bushes. Cant we plant trees like Carribean Trumpet, Pink tecomas, Amaltas in Rajarhat medians or along the service roads. We have some of them in front of Bikas Bhavan, but other than that nowhere. In Bangalore, these trees throw a riot of colors when they bloom. A large portion of the road from technopolis bridge to DLF and unitech is planted with "Karabis", which is not that striking when in bloom. However, tastes differ and hope some person with a colorful mind gets the responsibility.
ReplyDeleteSir, I must congratulate you to have the vision for a better city and your approach to call for design competition for all major public structure is really appreciated. It gives young designers like us a fair chance to compete with our innovative ideas unlike other cases where design abilities are judged only through financial statements.
ReplyDeleteBut I also request you to kindly have a personalized look into these matters overseeing that this young creative minds are discouraged by exploitation by the state.
Thanks again sir, look forward to you future good, fair and justified acts.
I mean * not exploited
ReplyDeleteAlso its great to find some like you to be so easily accessible
Finally we get a taste of true democrecy :)
Thanks,
Ar. Abhishek Dutta
@ ArcOn Design: I'm not sure what you mean by exploitation here. I thought we were offering a very flat and level playing field to all, where creativity and merit counts. You are welcome to give a more detailed email to me at : debashisen@gmail.com
ReplyDeletethank you sir.
ReplyDeleteThanks for doing such innovative jobs. You deserve Kudos.I have one suggestion.
ReplyDeleteWhen we talk of landscaping, feeding water to the small plants/grasses/shrubs poses a huge problem on the medians.In one of the recently constructed medians in the Chittaranjan Avenue, I have seen the agencies, who have been assigned the role of plantation , had been feeding water to the plants in mugs/pipes emerging from small tanks.Huge amount of water is spilling out on the road along the wall of the median ....looks quite horrible & shows the unprofessional touch.
Why can't you think of some sort of drip/pop-up sprinklers, small tubelets as used in Isreal to feed the small plants/grasses.It will be hidden under the soil on the medians and will give aesthetic look. Further, it will also control loss of water. Can you not contact any of the drip irrigation companies who are specialised in landscaping. There are quite good companies in the south who have specialised in designing the landscaping aspect in Banglore film city, Hotels etc..
Do give it a thought process.
Sudip Malik
RBI, Kolkata
Thanks for providing recent updates regarding the concern, I look forward to read more landscape architect san diego
ReplyDelete