Hyderabad:
The garden of Rashtrapti Nilayam here, the Presidential palace in south India, will be opened for public viewing from January 7-12 this year.
The garden in the Nilayam at Bollaram here will be open to the public from 1000 hours to 1700 hours and visitors at the entry point will be allowed upto 1600 hours. Entry will be through Gate No 2, a Rashtrapati Bhavan press release said.
The premises of the Rashtrapati Nilayam have been developed as an eco-friendly complex which mainly comprises a landscaped garden, beautiful road scaping, different seasonal flowering plants.
Seven different types of nutrition gardens of mango, chickoo, pomegranate, guava, amla, coconut have been developed.
In addition to this, a herbal garden has been developed which is intended to bring in awareness about our rich heritage and diversity of medicinal plants.
"This is also to preserve and promote the medicinal values of various plants that grow widely in our surroundings, whose properties are beneficial to human beings and maintain a balance between man and nature," the release said.
The herbal garden has 116 species of medicinal and aromatic plants like sarpgandha, kalabandha (aloe vera), citronella, lemon grass, khus, geranlum, coriander, sandlwood, tuber rose, jasmine, kalmegh, tulsi, isbgol among others.
These plants can be used for natural home remedial cure for a variety of diseases.
The garden is located in an area of about 7,000 square meters. The garden has also developed annuals, perennials, creepers and shrubs, the release said.
Several measures have been taken during the last two years for conservation of rain water at the Rashtrapati Nilayam, the release said.
Earlier, the rainwater used to flow out of the Nilayam premises, which is now collected and conserved, resulting in substantial rise in ground water level. New water sources like borewells have been developed and existing open wells have been developed for efficient water irrigation and drip
irrigation system at the complex, it said.
The premises of Rashtrapti Nilayam were opened for the common people for the first time in 2011.
The Rashtrapati Nilayam building was taken over from the Nizam of Hyderabad post-independence, and handed over to the President's Secretariat.
Constructed in 1860, it is a a single-storied building standing in 90-acre premises.
The President stays and conducts official business from the Rashtrapati Nilayam at least once a year.
President Pratibha Patil arrived here on December 25 and she is scheduled to leave for Delhi tomorrow.