TIRUCHY: Amid complaints about poor maintenance, the Tiruchy city corporation mulls leasing out some of the public parks in the city to private entities. In May, the civic body had on pilot basis leased out Ibrahim Park on West Boulevard road, Chinnaswamy Park on Rajaram road, and a park in RS Puram (south) to ensure proper maintenance.
The private agencies to which the parks were leased out were permitted to collect entry fees. With complaints about what is said to be the poor upkeep of city parks popping up, the city corporation is considering to lease out more parks to private parties.
"Over 310 public parks comes within the purview of the city. The corporation is not in a position to spend even Rs 2 lakh on a park on an annual basis. Therefore, we plan to lease out the parks to ensure its maintenance," said an officer who sought anonymity. Meanwhile, senior officials said the plan is in the pipeline, pointing out the difficulty in roping in private players willing to manage public parks with nominal fees as low as Rs 3 per visitor.
They said the residents associations they approached expressed hesitance in giving out financial support to maintain public parks. "Of now, three public parks are leased out. We are trying to rope in more private players. But most of them are unwilling to hire out public parks that are not situated in prime locations. However, all efforts are on," a senior official said. Recently, Mayor Mu Anbalagan inspected a park in KK Nagar following a complaint about visitors spotting a snake.