Kathmandu, April 27The government has issued the Garden Development and Management Procedure-2019 to entertain the general public, promote tourism, enhance the aesthetic value of rural and urban areas and manage open spaces for disaster management through gardens and parks.The procedure that aims to bring about positive impact on environment and public health has set standards for establishment and development of gardens.As per the procedure, there will be a seven-member Central Garden Coordination Committee led by the minister of Urban Development.
It includes secretary at the Ministry of Urban Development, and joint secretaries at the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Forests and Environment and the Ministry of Land Management, Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation, and director general at the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction as members.The committee has been mandated with the task of identifying places for development and construction of gardens and parks, recommend to the government to declare national level gardens and formulate necessary policies.
The decisions of the committee will be implemented by the federal project implementation units under the DoUDBC.
&The units will construct, upgrade, expand, maintain and manage gardens in line with the directives of the committee,& the procedure reads.The procedure has classified the gardens into six categories.
They include natural and ecological garden, cultural and historical garden, botanical garden, children garden, science and information technology garden and industrial garden.
The government may declare any of such facilities as national garden on the recommendation of the committee.As per the procedure, a garden needs to fulfil certain requirements and meet the prescribed standards to be declared a national garden.&For this purpose, a garden should be situated in an accessible place of the city where there is at least a twolane road leading to the facility with a river system or green area and open space in its vicinity,& it says.The garden requires to have the land area prescribed by the committee with at least a 50 per cent open space of its land coverage.Other requirements include the facilities of a meeting hall, a waiting shed, an information centre, a picnic spot, a children park, a parking area and some indigenous plants and flowers.Similarly, the facility should have round-the-clock water and power supply, drinking water and good sanitation system, playground and sports equipment, among other amenities.