Facing acute financial hardship, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NMC) has decided to hand over its half a dozen swimming pools to private hands, besides raising the user charges in the range of Rs100 to Rs300 on monthly basis. 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 license 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 Rs300 instead of the existing Rs200. User charges for private school children have been raised from Rs300 to Rs500, for employees of Municipal Corporation or their children from Rs300 to Rs500, and all other users from Rs500 to Rs800, 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 revenue of Rs13.31 lakh, while Rs9.57 lakh was spent on their repair and maintenance.