The proposal to beautify Powai Garden passed in BMC

Mumbai, May 25 (UNI) The proposal to beautify Powai Garden at a cost of Rs 39 crore has been passed in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) Standing Committee today and the contract was given to BPL-BBC joint venture project, a company from Aurangabad.

The proposal to beautify was passed after a lot of discussion in the House. It was opposed by a number of councillors in the House citing various reasons. Among those who opposed the proposal were MNS councillor Rajendra Laad from Kurla and NCP councillor Niyaz Ahmed Vanu from Wadala. The major contentions of these corporators were not to spend so much money on beautification per se when there were other major issues in the city.

''We have not been able to provide the people of Mumbai with clean and enough drinking water and this kind of a proposal is sheer waste of public money,'' says Rajendra Laad.

Mr Vanu said, ''The company that has been given the tender does not have any experience in this kind of a project and there have been many instances when tenders have been rejected due to lack of experience.'' He further said BMC should prioritise it's issues as to what is more important for the city.

Additional Municipal Commissioner (special projects) Manu Kumar Srivastav said, ''The guidelines that had been given in the tender has been adhered to by the client and the consultancy fees that was an issue has been sorted out and has been reduced as per the market price.'' Mr Laad said there were no negotiations while finalising the consultancy charges, to which Srivastava answered that a panel had been formed after which the proposal was passed.

BJP councillor and a member of the Standing Committee Bhalchandra Shirsat said, ''Two rates were given by the client and the second one was 10 per cent lower than the first one, i.e. the first tender was for Rs 42 crore after which it was reduced by 10 per cent.'' Mr Srivastav said the client while giving the tender, there is a chance of reduction in 10 per cent of the costs at the time of starting the work and the proposal was accordingly presented in the House.

Congress councillor Kamlesh Rai said, ''The garden should be beautified and the cost of beautification should be recovered by BMC and an entry fee should be charged after making it a tourist spot.'' Rai further added that a similar garden has been developed in Hyderabad that is half the size of Powai garden, having many water sports and other activities for the visitors.

Mr Shirsat was in favour of BOT (Build Operate Transfer) basis, that was refused by other members of the committee saying that the garden should belong to BMC and not to any private body.

UNI