Asia’s largest rose garden, the Zakir Rose Garden, is set to get a fresh look. Work has started to add more variety of roses, development of a rose nursery, a tourist information centre-cum-gift shop, installation of a tubewell, signages and concrete edging of beds. Once the work is completed, the Rose Garden will have 4,000 varieties of roses.

The Union Ministry of Tourism has sanctioned Rs 2.69 crore for the purpose. The funds will also be used for installing fountains and illuminating the garden.

The process of creating new beds and planting saplings has started and around 200 varieties of roses have been brought from Bangalore, UT Chief Engineer Surinder Pal said.

The garden will have sections with roses named after great personalities, roses with unusual names, roses named after countries and fruits, and an exclusive section of unique roses. The ‘Pride of India’ section is likely to showcase roses native to India.

Started in 1967, the Rose Garden is spread over an area of 30 acres. However, over the years, the varieties of roses had declined. The flower beds had started looking unkempt, and signboards had gone missing at some places.