The BMC kalyan mandap at Saheed Nagar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 16: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is planning to offer discounts for booking kalyan mandaps (community halls) during off-season to boost the civic body’s revenue collection.

These community halls can now be booked for birthday parties, social get-togethers, private parties or even mundan ceremonies. The civic body has proposed a 50 per cent cut in booking charges.

The detailed proposal will be placed before the municipal council at its committee meeting to get the requisite nod.

At present, the corporation is collecting Rs 6,742 to book small kalyan mandaps with less space and facilities. The bigger facilities command a fee of Rs 20,225 for booking of events such as marriage ceremonies. Kalyan mandaps are mainly booked during the marriage season and remain unused almost the rest of the year. With seven mandaps under its belt, the corporation is operating them at Unit-VIII in Nayapalli, Chandrashekharpur, Dakshin Chandi in Old Town, Vir Surendra Sai Nagar, Saheed Nagar and Badagada.

The civic body earned revenue to the tune of Rs 56.98 lakh through bookings of the mandaps in 2011-12 financial year. Sources said, the corporation was spending huge amount for the mandaps’ maintenance and the revenue was not up to the mark.

Municipal commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said: “With the new proposal to introduce concessions for off-season, we hope people will tend to come to their nearest mandaps, so that they will get the service at nominal rate and the civic body, the revenue.”

However, sources in the corporation said that apart from the mandaps, there were several community centres run by the civic body and if properly managed, they could also ensure good returns.

“Some of the centres are also managed by local youth clubs and organisations. Hence, the collection never reaches the civic body. Once the operation of these outlets are streamlined, the civic body can ensure better return from its properties across the city,” said a senior official.

The corporation was planning to make a proper inventory of its properties and hand it over to the land department, so that the buildings would be better maintained and looked after, the official said. Sources added if the financial situation of the mandaps did not improve despite this initiative, the civic body would be forced to go for privatisation of them.