TRICHY: Considering its poor finances, Trichy corporation has invited banks to sponsor maintenance of public parks in the wake of their poor upkeep. The urban local body has clarified that advertisement rights will not be given to those showing willingness, but the institutions can claim credit for the maintenance by displaying their organisation’s name or logo.
The civic body has approached 31 branches of different nationalised banks in the city with whom bank accounts of Trichy corporation are maintained to take responsibility of the parks. “The interested banks have to take care of all maintenance activities in running the public park including wages for gardeners, electricity charge and maintenance of the play area. Since we do not have adequate funds to maintain all the green space, the banks were approached,” a senior official with Trichy corporation said.
Mayor Mu Anbalagan and commissioner Dr R Vaithinathan interacted with the bank officials recently explaining to them the requirements. While the cost of annual maintenance of a small public park would come to about 3-4 lakh, that of large ones is estimated to be 7-8 lakh a year. The proposal to rope in banks for the job is considered as a win-win situation for the local body since complaints on maintenance are expected to subside once the institutions spend their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for it. At least five to 10 public parks in every zone of the local body are in dire need of maintenance.
