Srinagar | It's a riot of colours at Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden as Asia's largest tulip garden is ready to welcome tourists from this weekend.

The garden, formerly known as Siraj Bagh, is ensconced between Dal Lake and Zabarwan Hills. It will be opened to the public on Saturday as tulips of different colours have started to bloom, floriculture department officials said.

They added that five new varieties of tulips have been added to the existing 68 varieties this year. The department has also increased the area under the tulip garden by adding another two lakh bulbs.

A record 17 lakh tulip bulbs have been planted in the garden that spreads over 55 hectares of land, the officials said.

Other spring flowers, such as hyacinths, daffodils, muscari and cyclamens, will also be on display to add to the variety of flowers and colours in the garden, they said.

The Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip Garden was set up by then chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in 2007 to advance the tourist season in Jammu and Kashmir which was earlier limited to summers and winters.

The garden started at a small scale with 50,000 tulip bulbs imported from Holland. It instantly gained popularity among tourists and has been steadily growing each year, both in terms of number of visitors and tulips that bloom here.

More than 3.65 lakh visitors, both domestic and foreigners, visited the garden last year while in 2022, it saw a footfall of 3.6 lakh people.

The tulip garden is also one of the favourite locations for shooting movies and videos as several film units from across the country have shot parts of their projects here last year.

Divisional Commissioner Kashmir V K Bhiduri held a meeting in Srinagar on Tuesday to review the arrangements for the opening of the garden.

Bhiduri directed the operation of colourful lights to enhance the visual vibrancy of the place.

"He also directed the Srinagar Municipal Corporation to conduct a sanitation and cleanliness drive at the garden besides ensuring availability of a separate mobile toilet facility for men and women at the venue," an official spokesman of the Floriculture Department said.

The official added that the department has added nearly 22,000 square feet of additional parking space at the garden for the convenience of visitors