The government today approved by a telephone vote a proposal by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to build the Ayalon Park project. The park will provide a green space for the greater Tel Aviv area, for the public benefit.
The Ayalon Park will be a vacation and leisure center. It will include a large lake, sports facilities, community centers, an amphitheater, pedestrian walkways, and tropical gardens, among other things. The project also includes rehabilitation of the Hiriya waste site, which will be covered with a variety of colorful flora, and purification of the Ayalon and Shafirim rivers.
In order to implement the outline plan, an agency will be established to set up, design, and manage the park, and ensure its preservation as open space for future generations.
A joint team of the Prime Minister’s Office; the Ministries of Environment, Interior, Justice, and Finance; the Israel Land Administration, the Tel Aviv municipality; and representatives of the local authorities bordering the park region will recommend within three months to the government the most suitable organizational and legal structure for the agency.
The government, local authorities, overseas donors, Mifal Hapayis Israel National Lottery, the Jewish National Fund, and other agencies that have expressed willingness to help with financing will cooperate in the project, which will cost hundreds of millions of shekels.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on April 21, 2005