Having failed to maintain water bodies under it, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has decided to rope in NGOs and other non-profit bodies to endorse, revitalise and maintain its reservoirs. The move comes at a time when the land owning agency has been on the receiving end of severe criticism over the years for its inability to conserve and maintain these dying resources.
In a fresh bid to preserve reservoirs under its jurisdiction, the DDA on Wednesday invited NGOs, Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and other bodies to ideate and submit proposals for redevelopment and maintenance of various water bodies across the national Capital. This is for the first time that the DDA is planning to outsource the upkeep of its ponds and lakes. The authority has, however, put three conditions for interested applicants. “The applicant should have minimum five years of experience as on December 31, 2013. Secondly, it should be able to generate funds for this job from charitable institutes and other public resources of funding. Thirdly, the applicant should have personal staff required for the execution of the entire task. The staff having knowledge of hydrology or irrigation engineering shall be given preference,” said a DDA official.
The DDA has been facing a lot of flak from the courts, the Delhi Parks and Garden Society (DPGS) and several Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) for being unable to tackle the perennial problem of its dying water bodies. With encroachments, sewage and concrete constructions all over them, the reservoirs clearly indicated the ineptness of the agency. The authority currently has 118 water bodies under its control. The prominent ones out if them are located in Hauz Khas, Vasant Kunj (Sanjay lake), Dwarka and Mehrauli.
The DDA has chalked out a detailed plan of selecting the groups who would be responsible the revival and conservation these water bodies. “Pre-bid presentations of the work and proposals of the applicants will be judged and then selected. Interested parties or individuals will have to showcase their work undertaken by them for restoring water bodies. We will also judge what they have in offer for infrastructural and technical support so that we can allocate of water bodies available in Delhi for redevelopment,” added the official.
The notice issued by the authority stated, “Expression of Interests (EOIs) are invited from NGOs/SHGs and other bodies, having experience in retrieval, redevelopment and maintenance of water bodies and they should have experience/capacity to generate funds from non-governmental resources and DDA.”