LAHORE:Lahore has about 13,500 flower beds this year, up from 9,550 last year, the city’s horticulture agency said, as its chief toured green belts and briefed trainee civil servants from Sindh on how the provincial capital runs its parks.
Ahmad Usman Javed, managing director of Horticulture Agency Lahore, made unannounced visits on Monday to Khayaban-e-Jinnah, Khayaban-e-Firdousi, the Southern Bypass, New Punjab University Road, the main boulevards of Faisal Town, Barkat Road and Gulberg, and Liberty Chowk. He also checked field teams on Canal Road and on the stretch from Jail Road to Doctors Hospital.
Flowering trees were being planted across the city, and the agency’s flower shops were selling bouquets at affordable prices, he said, adding that nurseries were being supplied with seed and fertiliser on time.
On Tuesday, under-training officers of the Sindh First Common, led by Shaukat Ali Umrani and Ehtisham-ul-Haq Mughal, visited the agency. Additional Managing Directors Sonia Kaleem and Zona Waheed and Director Marketing Hassan-ul-Haq briefed them before they toured Jilani Park and its Bonsai Garden and planted saplings.
Javed told the visitors the agency looks after 808 parks and 1,273 acres of green belts, runs 21 nurseries, 53 Miyawaki forests and a museum, and is organised into eight administrative zones. It also regulates outdoor advertising and provides sports grounds.
The figures come as Lahore heads into its smog season. The city was already 16th on a global pollution index in early September, and air quality usually worsens sharply from late October. Javed said increasing green cover remained a key goal and that the agency would support efforts to control smog.
Dense Miyawaki plantings, first tried in Lahore in 2020, are meant to grow quickly and trap dust. The agency did not say how many of its 53 such forests are thriving, or what the expanded flower-bed programme cost. Its chief’s previous field tour ended with deadlines ordered but none made public.
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