Rs 2.50 crore being spent on Tulip garden in Srinagar

Srinagar, Nov 25 (UNI) The tulip garden in Siraj Bagh on the foothill of Zabarwan hills, which is the main attraction for thousands of visitors every year, is being further developed at a cost of Rs 2.50 crore.

Development works in the garden is carried by hundreds of workers of Floriculture department to make it ready by March-April, when no other activity is available for tourists after winter.

The garden, overlooking famed Dal Lake advanced the tourist season by a month and it remained a main attraction for thousands of tourists and Bollywood.

As many as 74,421 visitors from different parts of the country, abroad and locals visited the tulip garden and the tourism department earned a revenue of Rs 27. 30 lakh from entry ticket.

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was the brain behind the garden, which had filled the gap as tourist season normally starts in May every year.

In December 2005, 30,000 tulip bulbs were sown in the garden which was further extended to 3 lakh bulbs in December 2006.

The garden was further extended by sowing 12 lakh bulbs making it the Asia's largest tulip garden.

In all, 60 varieties of early, mid, late and very late blooming tulips spread a rainbow of red, orange, purple, white, pink, parrot and yellow colours in the garden.

The garden was to be developed in terraces, three of which had already been laid, they said, adding two more are scheduled to be laid this year.

They said within the next two years, the dream of 20 lakh bulbs would get fulfilled.

Meanwhile, the Floriculture Model Centre it Nunar, Ganderbal spread over an area of 170 kanal, produces about four lakh Lilium bulbs annually.

The bulbs are distributed to the farmers within and outside the state.

The agriculture department planned to bring 60 kanals of land under Lilium cultivation this year.

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