Delhi Gets A ‘Green’ Makeover In A Bid To Solve Its Air Pollution Crisis, Now Metro Pillars To Have Vertical Gardens

New Delhi: In a first, in order to tackle city’s bad Air Quality that ranges mostly from ‘Very Poor’ to ‘Poor’, Delhi metro is converting its drab looking pillars with vertical gardens that will fight bad air pollutants and will release more clean oxygen. For this initiative, the credit goes to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), who came up with this idea. As a pilot project, for now a small stretch of the Blue Line (Dwarka Sector 21-Vaishali/ Noida City Centre) between Mandi House and Pragati Maidan stations sport vertical gardens that will be maintained by the NDMC. Later, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will explore the possibilities of replicating the same concept in other locations.

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About The Vertical Gardens

In a mesh like frame, the pillars are covered with small pots with plants fitted closely in rows, giving the pillars the look of a vertical garden. The pots are planted with plants that are without soil and gets required nutrients only through water in the right quantity. And, this process is called Hydroponics.

NDMC plans to water these plants regularly through spraying machines with the help of pumps.

A senior official from NDMC speaking to NDTV added,

We thought of adding vertical gardens for two reasons, one it will give a greener and cleaner look to Delhi, and secondly, it will help fight air pollution.

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How Vertical Gardens Help TO Fight Air Pollution

A vertical garden improves the quality of air by acting as a natural air filter. The plants apart from generating oxygen, keep purifying and eliminating airborne toxins like benzene, formaldehyde, and trichloroethylene in the air.

Delhi Metro is not the first one to take the green initiative ahead. The Kochi Metro was the first among the Metrorail corporations to build vertical gardens in January 2017 followed by Bengaluru’s Namma Metro and Nagpur’s Mahametro.

There are many countries globally that have adopted vertical gardens for tackling Air Pollution crisis. Mexico’s success story went viral last year on social media on how they effectively tackled air pollution through vertical gardens. Singapore, California, Beijing are some other success stories.