COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) has decided to rope in private agencies to carry out maintenance works at water bodies that have been developed and beautified under the smart city projects. The agency will maintain the place, and plants and deploy security personnel to monitor the facility.
Under the smart city projects mission, the civic body carried out beautification and revamp works in seven water bodies including Periyakulam, Valankulam, Selvachinthamani, Selvampathi, Muthannan, Kumarasamy and Krishnampathi-Kurichi at a cost of over Rs 350 crore.
Several developmental works such as walking tracks, beautifying bunds, children’s play areas, attractive lights and kiosks for trade were installed in the area. The civic body had also launched boating services in Valankulam in association with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation and water sports activities in Periyakulam with the help of a private firm.
However, the officials were unable to maintain the facility due to a fund crunch and lack of manpower. In this situation, CCMC has decided to hand over the maintenance work to private agencies and has invited an EOI (Expression of Interest) from private agencies with prior experience in maintaining similar leisure spots.
Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Commissioner M Pratap said that the civic body and the private agency together would supply manpower for security and supervision of the facilities, adding that it would be the private agency’s responsibility to maintain the plants, gardens, grass fields, benches and other facilities including the electrical maintenance.
“The civic body will not pay any money to the agency for the maintenance works. Instead, the agency will be allowed to use a certain stretch of the place within the facility to generate revenue through advertising to meet and bear the expenses for the maintenance works. As per our rough calculations, we have to spend around Rs 8 crore per year for the maintenance of the facilities,” he added.
M Prathap also revealed that he has turned down the suggestions to introduce entry fees for the facilities. Smart city project sources said that work at all the lake fronts nearing completion as the deadline is March 31.