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Published: Friday November 20, 2009 MYT 10:10:00 AM
Updated: Friday November 20, 2009 MYT 1:01:54 PM

Garden project for Kuching city centre


KUCHING: A federal-funded botanical garden will be developed in the heart of the city in Petra Jaya here.

Kuching City North Commission Datuk Bandar Mohamad Atei Abang Medaan said the state government had set aside 51ha of prime state land for the project.

Initiated and funded by the National Landscape Department, the botanical garden will be the first of its kind in Sarawak, he said.

Its development is expected to start in the next one or two years.

Mohamad Atei said the state had over 2,500 species of trees and plants that would help to establish the proposed garden.

“There are a lot of other (tourist) attractions around the proposed project site,” he told reporters after opening a three-day urban forestry conference at Kuching Hilton, organised by the city commission and the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM).

FRIM deputy director-general of operations Dr Abdul Rahim Nik said the country had only a few botanical gardens, including the ones in Penang, Shah Alam and Putrajaya.

Such gardens, he said, would enhance green conservation efforts and educate the young generation on plants and trees.

Earlier, at the opening ceremony, Mohamad Atei said the state capital had sufficient greenery and shrubs to provide for a sustainable environment, adding that Kuching North had won the sustainable city Asean environmental award 2006-2007 in Hanoi.

Mohamad Atei said there were 46 public parks covering over 2,900ha in the city’s north area and that the commission spent RM2.4mil a year to maintain them.

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