A government project will be launched to renovate Vivekananda Park. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Eight months of clean-up drives and prods by a group of schoolchildren has made the government take up the work it should have been doing all along: maintaining Vivekananda Park.

The 5,00,000sq ft park on Southern Avenue was covered with litter when the youngsters took up its cause. It is now much cleaner but still does not have railings, lights and seats.

On Saturday, urban development minister Firhad Hakim will launch a project to renovate the park. Gates, fences and lights will be installed, a gardener and security personnel deployed and toilets revamped as part of the project. The work will be done by the Calcutta Improvement Trust, to which the park belongs.

Ninety students from Modern High School for Girls are the drivers of the Save Vivekananda Park initiative. Brooms in hand, they have been removing garbage from the park on weekend mornings and meeting authorities to request them to maintain the park properly.

“We are happy that the government will give the park a facelift, which we wanted to save from ruin in the run-up to Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary,” said Abha Laddha, head girl and president of the nature club of Modern High.

“We still remember that residents would slam the door when we sought their help. Some of them would dump more waste in the park because we were cleaning it,” said the treasurer of the nature club, Sejal Banka.

The girls were helped by students from La Martiniere for Boys, Don Bosco, Park Circus, The Heritage School, MSB Educational Institute and also Ricards Lodge High School in Wimbledon, who were in the city in February under a exchange programme.

“The students drove this initiative and it is fantastic that the community and the government are coming together. This model can be replicated in other places as well,” said Vivek Bhardwaj, the CEO of the CMDA, a sister organisation of Calcutta Improvement Trust.