Mohali Municipal Corporation to rebuild 33 bus queue shelters

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Mohali, January 10

The Municipal Corporation (MC) House today passed a resolution to reconstruct 33 bus queue shelters in the city, which would bring a revenue to the tune of Rs1 crore in the form of advertisement fee.

The resolution was passed in a virtual House meeting held under the chairmanship of Mayor Amarjit Singh Jeeti Sidhu. Senior Deputy Mayor Amrik Singh Somal and Deputy Mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi were present in the meeting. The councillors attended it online.

Divulging details, the Mayor said the present contractor had the right to advertise till March 25, 2022. The contractor had to submit a licence fee of Rs2,516 per month per bus queue shelter in addition to the construction and maintenance of the shelters at his own cost. He said as per the government directions, the work had to be allotted through an e-auction.

Jeeti Sidhu said under the resolution passed by the MC House, the reserve price for advertisements on 33 bus queue shelters was Rs25,000 per month per shelter, which amounted to Rs1 crore per annum.

The second resolution proposed to send 697 sanitation employees for work in various areas of Mohali and to cancel the contract for manual sweeping.

A sanitation branch, in a report, stated that Lion Services, a company, was awarded the contract of sanitation since 2015. The duration of this work was extended from time to time. The contract was extended till February 14 this year, by a House resolution passed on November 7 last year, on a condition that if the process of recruitment of sanitation employees was done before three months and the tender process for mechanical sweeping was completed, the contract would be terminated.

After the recruitment of sanitation employees, a resolution has now been passed to terminate the contract for manual sweeping. The MC needs 40 more employees for the work of manual sweeping in Mohali. Hence, it was decided to extend the contract for the work of cleaning of toilets till new recruitment was done.

In addition, during the ongoing process of awarding new contracts for the maintenance of parks, approval was given to extend the tenure of the current contractors and also to increase the maintenance cost paid to them by 25 per cent.

In another important resolution, the MC Commissioner was given the power to settle the objections raised regarding the extended limits of the civic body. Municipal Commissioner Kamal Garg will address these objections and send a report to the Local Government Department.

Move to raise annual revenue by Rs 1 cr

• Mayor Amarjit Singh Jeeti Sidhu said the present contractor had the right to advertise till March 25 this year. The contractor had to submit a licence fee of Rs2,516 per month per bus queue shelter in addition to the construction and maintenance of the shelters at his own cost.
• Jeeti Sidhu said under the resolution passed by the MC House, the reserve price for advertisements on 33 bus queue shelters was Rs25,000 per month per shelter, which amounted to Rs1 crore per annum.