Zoo make-over to begin soon

Mumbai, Feb 1 (UNI) The city zoo will soon be renovated after the Central government's technical committee approval for the same, said Additional Municipal Commissioner R A Rajiv.

Addressing reporters here today, Mr Rajiv said that most of the formalities regarding the zoo's make-over is complete and the work on the same will begin soon. The weekly briefing was attended by the additional municipal commissioners and Civic Chief Jairaj Phatak.

Commenting on the usage of the civic budget, Mr Phatak said that 90 per cent of the budget at the ward level has been spent and at the central level, the figure is 50-60 per cent.

''In some of the bigger projects, money has not been used and the same will be carried over in next year's budget,'' added Mr Phatak.

''We have got only seven to eight months period for spending the money as the budget was passed in July-August last year,'' said Mr Phatak.

Civic budget of the city is to the tune of Rs 12,000 crore, the majority of which is used for the development work in the city.

On the civic health sector, Additional Municipal Commissioner Kishore Gajbeye said that the disposal of the bio-medical waste at the civic-run KEM and the Bhagwati hospitals are at place and according to the court directives, the BMC staff will be acted against for their short-comings.

''The contract for disposing the bio-medical waste at the civic-run hospitals has been awarded by the sewerage department of the local ward office,'' added Mr Gajbeye.

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