Ahmedabad’s Lokmanya Tilak Baugh, popularly known as Victoria Garden, has won the Green Space Category of City Beauty in a Central government-initiated competition. The garden is managed under the Pratiti initiative of Torrent Group’s CSR arm, the UNM Foundation.
The competition, launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India in December 2022, aims to provide an opportunity for cities and civic wards to showcase their initiatives towards creating beautiful public spaces and enhancing urban life. The awards are in five categories – Heritage, Green Space, Commercial, Waterfront and Ward, with each category comprising three awards.
Victoria Garden has topped the Green Space Category, with Swami Vivekananda Park in Kodinar and Flower Park in Ahmedabad being the first and second runners-up respectively. The award ceremony took place on Monday at Gandhinagar. The award was presented to M. Thennarasan, Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) by Ashwini Kumar, Principal Secretary of Urban development and urban housing of the State government.
The competition saw a total of 252 entries from 144 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) across the country, out of which 174 entries qualified for the Third-Party Agency (TPA) survey. The State Governments appointed TPAs for on-ground verification and validation and constituted an independent jury of eminent experts to evaluate the entries.
The award to Victoria Garden in the “Green Spaces” category not only showcases the botanical brilliance of the city but also reinforces Victoria Garden’s identity as the epitome of urban elegance, weaving nature’s tapestry into the fabric of the city. The garden sees about 2500 to 3000 visitors daily, approximately 10-11 lakh footfalls per annum.
Sapna Mehta, Chairperson of UNM Foundation expressed her gratitude to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation for entrusting them with the responsibility to manage and develop the heritage Lokmanya Tilak (Victoria) Garden. She said, “This accolade is not merely a recognition of the efforts of UNM Foundation towards preservation, restoration and development of green cover in Ahmedabad city, but is also a reflection of the growing importance for vibrant and aesthetic public spaces for an ever-expanding city like Ahmedabad. We congratulate the citizens of Ahmedabad as they are the real winners of the Award for showing their affection and care for Nature.”
