Vertical gardens to be made must for high-FSI bldgs in Goa: Viswajit Rane

Margao/Bicholim/Vasco: State govt is set to introduce mandatory

vertical gardening requirements for buildings with high floor space index (FSI), town and country planning minister Vishwajit Rane said. The new regulations will require all buildings with 250 or higher FSI to incorporate vertical or terrace gardening systems.

Rane said an official notification of the vertical forest guidelines is expected soon. Occupancy certificates will be issued to buildings only upon full compliance with these new requirements, he added.

Apart from the vertical gardening mandate, Rane outlined plans to revise FSI restrictions to accommodate essential infrastructure needs. Exemptions from FSI calculations up to a certain extent of the height of a building could be considered specifically to allow for parking facilities and other public amenities like a community hall, he said.

The announcement came as Goa launched an ambitious afforestation drive under the ‘EkPedMaaKeNaam’ campaign, which aims to plant 5 lakh trees across the state over the next three to four months.

The first phase began on Thursday with 500 trees planted at Sonsoddo, a place that was once a legacy dump, which will now be home to 65,000 new trees. Rane said that within a year, the place will be transformed into a beautiful landscape.

Phase 2 of the tree-planting initiative is scheduled to commence in Aug, with dedicated nodal officers appointed to ensure the smooth execution and continuous monitoring of the programme’s progress.

Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, director of municipal administration Brijesh Manerkar, and chairperson of Margao Municipal Council Damodar Shirodkar were among those present on the occasion.

Meanwhile, Bicholim MLA Chandrakant Shetye, on the occasion of World Environment Day, called on farmers to use modern technology to bring their fallow land under cultivation.

“Our ancestral agricultural land is in ruins today and the younger generation of the households are looking for jobs. Our soil has the potential to grow gold,” he said.

In Mormugao, Vasco MLA Krishna Salkar distributed saplings to students from St Joseph Institute, Vasco and surrounding institutions, encouraging them to actively plant and nurture trees.