All public gardens will now be open for 12 hours a day, from 6 a.m. to noon and from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. The decision was taken by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently in view of criticism that gardens are being locked up in the name of maintenance. The BMC maintains around 750 gardens across the city through contractors or agencies. In recent times, there was a growing criticism that most gardens are open only seven to eight hours a day. While some would be open from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., others would stay open for an extra hour or so. There was no streamlining of the gardens’ timings. Some Mumbaikars were also of the opinion that gardens should stay open 24x7 while others said they should be open up to 11 p.m. “We will be putting up revised boards outside all public gardens and instructing contractors as well,” said a Garden Department official. Maintenance work will be undertaken between noon and 3 p.m. when gardens are shut. Public gardens are never shut especially on Sundays and public holidays. Vigilant citizens have ensured these open spaces have been preserved and protected from land grab over the years. A public movement forced BMC to scrap its old adoption policy for open spaces wherein private agencies were allowed to take spaces on adoption basis for as long as 20 years. Therefore, it came out with an open space policy wherein agencies are not allowed to maintain a space for more than a year at a time and extension is given only on their performance. BMC has managed to take back most open spaces except the 30-odd ones still vested with political bigwigs. Despite criticism, the spaces still remain with them.

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