chennai a sprawling 137 hectare 338 acres botanical garden will soon come up on the citys outskirts the state environment department has finalised the location kadambur village along gst road in chengalpet district it is located just 20 km from arignar anna zoological park in vandalurthe garden which will be home to climate resilient plants and will also have flora that will suit the weather conditions of chennai is being planned under the green tamil nadu mission as part of the effort to increase the states green cover from the current 237 to 33 forest minister k ramachandran has said the announcement was made in the state budget in march this yearone it becomes operational it will be the third such facility in and around chennai after semmozhi poonga on cathedral road and the one in madhavaram these are however just spread across 20 acres while the proposed garden will be spread over more than 300 acres and it will cost 300 crore against the 40 lakh80 lakh that these facilities cost the department has allocated the required sum for the project and is in the process of preparing a detailed project report once that is completed by march 2023 the work on the garden is expected to begin after signing a memorandum of understanding with kew gardens a nondepartmental public society based in the united kingdom and known for its expertise in setting up botanical gardens kew gardens will guide the state environment deparment including providing technical expertise on how to handle plants and what species to plant the mou is still under discussionofficials said that only climate resilient species of plants will be used and that a preliminary report with a list of species from tropical evergreen forest and temperate forest has already been shortlisted an official of the district forest said a plot of the revenue departments land in kadambur village had been selected for the project it will feature different types of gardens such as flower aesthetic bamboo satum herbal garden mini forest and so on for exotic or nonnative species to survive green houses and glass houses will be created he said