Amid staff shortage, MCD to outsource upkeep of parks

With more than two-thirds of the gardeners post lying vacant and acute manpower crunch across various levels, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is planning to hire a private agency to supply outsourced manpower to manage Delhi’s parks, gardens, and other green spaces for a period of two years.

- Paras Singh

According to the department estimates, the project is likely to cost around ₹143 crore. A proposal in this regard has been moved by the municipal commissioner to the house of councillors.

‘A senior municipal official said that currently gardeners are being hired under a piecemeal approach for short periods of time which needs repeated sanctions.

“The existing contract has also expired in August and repeated sanctions/approvals are needed for short term contracts for smaller clusters which impacts the maintenance. The hiring of the agency for 24 months will streamline the process for deploying manpower for all the zones and avoid the repeated disruptions.”

“The department is also in process of outsourcing the maintenance of larger parks (bigger than three acres),” the official explained.