Now, KMC will be responsible for upkeep of Citizens' Park

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is taking over the maintenance of Citizens' Park, popularly known as Mohor Kunja, situated on Cathedral Road beside Victoria Memorial.

The decision has been approved at the Member, Mayor-in-Councils' (MMiC) meeting that was chaired by Mayor Firhad Hakim on Saturday. Reliance Industries that had taken over the maintenance of the park in 2015, had written to the KMC a few days ago, expressing its unwillingness to carry on with the park's maintenance.

"We are taking over the maintenance of Citizen's Park as the private company associated with its maintenance is no longer willing to continue its upkeep," said Debasish Kumar, MMiC (Parks & Gardens).

It may be mentioned that Reliance Industries had taken over the park's maintenance in 2015 and was supposed to maintain the urban park for five years. The civic body had made it clear that they will not be able to do any commercial venture out of the park.

However, the company wrote to the Director General of the Parks & Garden department of the civic body, expressing its willingness to move out of the contract. When asked about the reason behind Reliance opting out of the contract, Kumar refused to comment.

The park, which had started its journey in 2005, was one of the most vaunted projects of the erstwhile Trinamool Congress board, with Subrata Mukherjee as the Mayor. It was named as Citizens Park.