LAHORE, Feb 22: Jashn-i-Baharan, annual spring festival of Lahore, started here on Thursday with the formal opening of the gala by Punjab housing minister Ali Raza Gilani at the Racecourse Park.

The Parks and Horticulture Authority, the organiser of the event, has made elaborate arrangements to welcome the advent of spring. All trees in the park, developed by late governor Ghulam Jilani in 1985, as well as the artificial waterfall have been illuminated.

The minister was taken from the park gate to the stage in a horse-driven carriage with folk artistes of all the four provinces performing along the route.

In view of deteriorating law and order situation in the country, security doors have been installed at all the entrances of the park while guards equipped with metal detectors are frisking each visitor. The ground earmarked as a venue for the festival has also been ringed with a barbed wire as an extra precautionary measure.

Pop singer Ali Zafar was scheduled to perform there late in the evening. Replicas of Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort and another have been erected there as entrance to the arena, two sides of which are lined by stalls of handicrafts from all parts of the country. A couple of stalls of traditional food like katlamma, pathorey, chappal kebab, Peshawari kehwa have also been set up.

Separate spaces have been provided for a book fair and bangles stalls.

Swings and other attractions for children have also been arranged while a corner is being prepared for a small zoo.

PHA officials say park is not their only focus for celebrating the spring festival as at least 45 floats depicting all colours of the local culture have been placed in the Ichhra Canal from The Mall up to the Ferozpur Road.

Similarly, six decorative gates have been erected at various city intersections on The Mall, Jail Road, Multan Road and in front of the Railway Station.

Various colourful decorations have been installed at electricity poles along major city roads, they say, adding that they have also provided key-chains to tourist operators and at the airport and some known inter-city bus terminals for free distribution among the tourists/passengers.