The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Tuesday, June 11, announced that all 1,200 neighbourhood parks in the city remain open from 5am to 10pm. This decision comes amidst long standing public demands for longer park hours. The decision was announced by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar during a meeting with the BBMP Commissioner, Tushar Giri Nath.
The current timings for the parks are between 5 am till 10 am and then 1:30 pm till 8 pm. Several citizen organisations had raised objections to these timings as it didn’t allow for the working class, especially outdoor workers, to utilise the park. The parks were closed during these hours citing maintenance reasons.
This decision will however apply to only BBMP’s parks and not the ones maintained by the state Horticulture department such as Lalbagh and Cubbon park.
Announcing the decision, DK Shivakumar said, “There has been a lot of public demand to keep the parks open all day as they are the most valuable and needed green spaces in our city. We are a government that listens to the public voice and we are making a decision do make people happy. As a step towards making our Garden City more inclusive, from now onwards, all the BBMP parks will remain open for the public between 5 am till 10 pm.”
He further requested citizens to help the BBMP in maintaining the parks.
The decision to increase the timings comes as a part of the BBMP’s first ever Climate Action and Resilience Plan for Bengaluru (BCAP) which was launched on November 27, 2023. “With this, Bengaluru became the third city in India to have a global standard, data-driven, inclusive and collaborative climate action plan. BCAP focuses on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the city and building healthy, equitable and resilient communities against climate change induced hazards,” DK Shivakumar said.
The #BluGreenUru campaign, part of this plan, calls for active citizen participation in conserving and restoring the city’s natural infrastructure.
A Climate Action Cell, chaired by Preet Gehlot, IAS, Special Commissioner (Forest Environment and Climate Change Management), has been established to oversee the implementation of the BCAP. This cell coordinates activities among stakeholders such as BWSSB, BESCOM, BMTC, BMRCL, and other departments and monitors the city's progress.
“Bengaluru is blessed with hundreds of nonprofits, NGOs, RWAs, civil society organisations working selflessly for the betterment of our city. More than 600 organisations joined hands when we announced the Brand Bengaluru programme. We are committed to citizen participation in governance and taking everyone's inputs and making them part of the solution… I call upon all RWAs, NGOs, to join this movement to make Bengaluru a BluGreenUru. We need your knowledge, your passion and your efforts,” Shivakuamar added.