Harekrushna Mahatab Park at BJB Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 10: The Bhubaneswar Development Authority is planning to privatise the management and maintenance of 20 small colony parks in the city on an experimental basis. It has already floated a tender inviting bids for this purpose.

At present, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) manages 57 parks. While the major parks will not be included in the exercise, the smaller ones, especially those near residential colonies, will be part of the experiment as the BDA is trying to lessen its burden and emphasise on development of the bigger parks.

The operation and maintenance contract to private agencies will include horticultural needs, civil work, security, maintenance of facilities and employing manpower requirements. While there is a plan to include three parks at BJB Nagar, one at Badagada Brit Colony, two at Saheed Nagar, one at Unit-IX, five at Nayapalli, five at MLA Colony and one each at Unit-I, II and VIII would be included in the privatisation programme.

On how the BDA will benefit from the venture, the development authority’s chief horticulturist Ashok N. Dhar said: “We are now investing around Rs 1 crore a year on maintenance of all the 57 parks in the city. But our focus remains on the major parks and the smaller ones are neglected. This move will benefit the smaller colony parks.”

Senior BDA official said basic requirements such as lighting, garbage disposal, security and inclusion of children’s rides would be addressed by this arrangement.

“We will try to keep our expenditure within the Rs 1 crore every year. But we are hoping to get corporate sponsors to adopt parks in the future. This will supplement to our funds requirement and there will be no extra burden on the BDA’s budget to maintain the parks,” said Dhar on the BDA’s future plans. However, Bijay Mishra, a resident of Nayapalli and a environmentalist, said: “We have encountered severe lapses in the management of major ones such as Madhusudan Park near Pokhariput where the rides for children have been still lying broken for years now.

Similarly, the renovation of a children’s park at Unit-II took years to be materialise. So I am not sure how much privatisation will help better the situation.”

Replying to this, Dhar said: “We have considered this plan after thorough examinations on every aspect. We are going to invite suggestions from resident welfare associations near the colony parks. They will also have a say on the operation of the private operators.”

Saying that the resident welfare associations will work as third party assessors for the maintenance work carried out by the private agency concerned, a senior BDA official said senior citizens would be encouraged to provide suggestions on major parks as well.

The BDA is also planning to develop 20 more colony parks across the city in this financial year. “We are getting requests almost every day either from councillors of various wards and resident welfare associations to build new parks in their localities,” he said.