KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 (NNN-BERNAMA) — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad today opened two facilities at the 131-year-old Perdana Botanical Gardens, making it a complete recreational park with elements of research, education and conservation.
The prime minister planted an evergreen Kembang Semangkuk (Scaphium linearicarpum) sapling as a symbolic gesture of the opening of the Visitors Complex and Ethnobotany Park as the added attractions of the gardens.
Dr Mahathir, accompanied by Deputy Federal Territories Minister Datuk Dr Shahruddin Md Salleh and Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Nor Hisham Ahmad Dahlan, went on a tour of the facilities and was given a briefing on the transformation of the park that was opened in 1888.
The two facilities are the final elements of the second-phase upgrading of the botanical gardens, and were completed last April.
The Visitors Complex houses a herbarium as a research centre; an interpretation centre as an information centre; a briefing room and a souvenir shop.
–NNN-BERNAMA
