The city is set to get its first public rose garden by June. Mayor Subrata Mukherjee made the announcement on Thursday.

The mayor said that about half of Maddox Square, on Ritchie Road (Pankaj Mullick Sarani) in south Calcutta, will be developed for the garden.

?My target is to give Calcuttans 100,000 roses of various hues and fragrance,? Mukherjee added.

The work on the project, spread over a two-bigha plot, started from Wednesday. The garden, housing a lakh rose plants of different types, will be looked after by the horticulturists of the parks and gardens wing of Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC).

The civic body has drawn up a plan to plant not less than 50,000 saplings by monsoon. The plants will cost more than Rs 15 lakh.

The garden will be a landmark, complete with greenhouse, fountains and lights, said Shaktibrata Ghosh, officer-on-special duty to the mayor.

Senior horticulturist Ranajit Samanta has already approached a nursery in Balagarh, Hooghly, that is believed to produce the best-quality rose saplings.

?I want to add one more name to the list of interesting places in the city,? mayor Mukherjee said while announcing plans for the rose garden. He added that the CMC has parks and squares, but no garden.

Director-general (civil) Uday Shankar Sengupta said the garden will house two smaller gardens on adjacent plots, each measuring 23.9 cottah. They will be on the southern side of Maddox Square.