The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will dig deep into its pockets to ensure clean and pristine beaches in the western suburban regions of the city. It has decided to spend Rs30,500 per day on the clean-up of three major beaches of Versova, Madh-Marve and Gorai-Manori, all of which are inland tourist attractions.
The money will be spent on a private firm, which will be entrusted with the responsibility of installing beach-cleaning machines at the shores. The contractor will also keep the beach clean. The firm will also be expected to collect garbage from bins installed at the beaches and transport it to dumping sites.
Senior officials from the BMC’s solid waste management (SWM) department justified the five-year beach contract stating that being popular recreation sites, these beaches saw a lot of visitors. A sizeable number among these saw dumped plastic and other disposable waste along the shoreline. Besides, the fishermen residing in colonies near these beaches often dumped waste here. Maintaining round-the-clock cleanliness at these beaches is important from the tourism and public health point of view, they said.
The BMC has already allotted similar beach contracts for four other beaches, including Juhu and Girgaum.
While cleaning up the Versova beach will cost the BMC Rs4,500 a day (Rs93.95 lakh over five years), the cost of keeping the Madh-Marve and the Gorai-Manori stretches clean will come to Rs13,000 a day each (Rs2.71 crore over five years). The contractor appointed by the civic body, Bala Industries, will also be required to clean the beaches post religious festivals like Ganesh Visarjan, Chhath Puja, Durga Puja and Diwali, among others. “The beaches should look clean for all the 24 hours. To make the contractor accountable, the corporation has also incorporated a penalty clause,” said RA Rajeev, additional municipal commissioner.
