The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation or BMC has announced that it will spend Rs 46.18 crore per year for the maintenance of playgrounds and civic gardens across Mumbai. The authorities will hire private contractors for this purpose. The BMC is expected to present the proposal to the Civic Standing Committee by Wednesday.
In August last year, the BMC was seeking suggestions for the new draft of the open spaces policy. However, just days after this, the BMC decided to keep out citizens and corporators out of the forum. Previously, parks and playgrounds came under NGOs of the city, with BMC deciding to take control shortly after.
However, BMC then decided to hand over reins to private parties with local citizens or elected corporators not getting a say in who gets to run them. This raised serious eyebrows among Mumbaikars.
The authorities have already chosen 24 contractors for the 24 wards of Mumbai who will undertake maintenance work for civic gardens, playgrounds, traffic islands as well as road divides. It was also reported that bidding was unusually low at 40 percent below the estimated cost, which has caused concern among citizens regarding the quality of the work these contractors will undertake.
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