Facing acute financial hardship, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has decided to hand over its half a dozen swimming pools to private hands, besides raising the user charges in the range of Rs 100 to Rs 300.
The decision to hand over the six swimming pools of the civic body located at Kutcha Bagh (Chandni Chowk), Shalimar Bagh, Prashant Vihar, Rohini Sector III, Majlis Park and Keshav Puram, on a monthly licence fee to outside agency selected through e-auction, was taken at a recent meeting of NDMC standing committee, said a senior municipal corporation officer.
The committee also approved the fee structure to be adopted by the selected private agency. The revised rates for municipal, government and aided school children will be Rs 300 instead of the existing Rs 200.
User charges for private school children have been raised from Rs 300 to Rs 500, for employees of municipal corporation or their children from Rs 300 to Rs 500, and all other users from Rs 500 to Rs 800, said the official.
The civic body took the decision owing to the acute financial scarcity faced by it. Last year (2014-15) the swimming pools earned a revenue of Rs 13.31 lakh, while Rs 9.57 lakh was spent on their repair and maintenance.
Work for repair and maintenance of the pools could not be undertaken due to severe financial constraints faced by the civic body in the current year, he said.
The licence granted to the selected private agency will be for a period of three years and it could be renewed by the NDMC for one year more upon satisfactory performance.
The NDMC has fixed a minimum reserved monthly licence fee of Rs 75,000 for each of the six swimming pools. The selected bidder will have to submit a security deposit totalling six months' licence fee within ten days from the date of issue of the acceptance letter by the civic body, he said.
