Hanging Garden sits on SoBo water-supplying reservoir

The Hanging Gardens, or the Pherozeshah Mehta Garden, is one of the most sought after tourist destinations located in Mumbai. This renowned garden located on Malabar Hills is known for its splendid green vegetation and animal shaped hedges, which is an interesting sight for anyone who visits this spot.

Adding to the garden’s beauty is the comforting view of the vast Arabian Sea. Watching the sunset from the Hanging Gardens would provide a tourist with an experience worth remembering for a lifetime. One interesting fact about Hanging Gardens is that it is built on a water reservoir, which provides fresh drinking water to South Mumbai (SoBo) residents.

Sanjay Mukherjee, additional municipal commissioner (AMC), remarked that in 1872 the open water reservoir was closed by the construction of slab structures on it and later in 1878 the garden was built.

As on the slopes of the reservoir the plantation happened therefore it was named as Hanging Garden.

Mukherjee said “The Hydraulic Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken up the beautification project in two phases. The first phase includes the slope stabilisation of the uneven hill terrain in Kamala Nehru Park to make it accessible to people to take the top view of the city. while the second will include a tree house with public seating among other measures of beautification.”

He further revealed that the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) is studying the slope stabilisation of the garden. The first phase set deadline is March 31, 2018, and the project cost is of Rs 5 crore.

“Once the first phase gets completed then the work of the second phase would commence. However, while doing the second phase renovation work the Pherozeshah Mehta Garden woud be kept open for visitors unlike in the first phase,” he added.

Along with the beautification the BMC it would also set up various themed gardens at the Kamla Nehru Park garden with nursery rhyme theme while the Pherozeshah Mehta garden theme would be based on topiary. The shrubs at the garden would be clipped or trimmed into shapes of animals, as part of the project.

The artistic creations would be planted in a setting to resemble that particular animal’s natural habitat. For instance, a shrub trimmed to resemble an elephant will have a green setting.