Vertical gardens to get a fresh lease of life

KMRL has been facing flak for not readying vertical gardens on 200 pillars of the metro as promised

Every sixth pillar in the Kochi Metro corridor will come alive with a tastefully done-up vertical garden, if everything works out as planned, sources in Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) said. The metro agency has been facing considerable flak for tardy upkeep of medians beneath the 25-km metro corridor and for not readying vertical gardens in 200 pillars, as had been promised. KMRL’s assurance on landscaping the medians and vertical gardens atop pillars dates back to 2017, when the metro’s 12-km-long Aluva-Palarivattom stretch was commissioned. But vertical gardens were largely limited to pillars near metro stations alone, while almost all pillars were handed over to an agency for placing illuminated advertisement boards, an initiative to garner revenue from non-ticketing sources.