Ahmedabad Public Gardens Operations and Maintenance

Context

Ahmedabad is the largest city in the state of Gujarat and the seventh largest city in India.
Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration within the city of Ahmedabad.
The urban development outside the AMC boundary is maintained by Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA).

AMC and AUDA are responsible for maintaining a total of 214 Public Gardens, which is generally at a pay per sqm rate to a contractor.
This was an expensive model involving a high maintenance cost and lacking efficiency in its co-ordination between multiple contracts as well as responding to complaints on maintenance issues.

AUDA proposed an innovative approach to help cut down the park maintenance costs using a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. AUDA collaborated with Anand Milk Federation Union Limited (AMUL), one of India’s largest dairy cooperatives, to maintain the AMC public gardens in return for being given the rights to establish and operate a retail store in these public gardens.
The revenue generated from the retail stores allow AMUL to fund the complete maintenance cost of the gardens.
AMUL engaged a service provider to provide the required garden maintenance. The provider was Gujarat Environmental Service Society (GESS), a trust established to promote and improve the environment. GESS is paid for the costs incurred in maintaining the public gardens plus a fixed percentage margin.

The PPP model was first tested where AMUL opened one store in a public garden to assess the viability of the model. AMUL commenced maintenance of 25 public gardens in 2001, gradually increasing in 2015 to maintaining 126 public gardens (78 of which contained retail stores), to operating 214 garden retail stores in Ahmedabad as of June 2021.
AMC and AUDA receive well maintained gardens without the major cost while AMUL receive prime locations to sell and market their products.
Following the success of this model in Ahmedabad, the model was adopted in Vadodara city, Gujarat.

The PPP model can result in a beneficial symbiotic relationship for all participants. AMC / AUDA save major costs of garden maintenance; AMUL get a prime location in Ahmedabad for customer interaction, advertising, and brand promotion; GESS gets a good platform for fulfilment of the trust’s objective and employment; and the citizens get maintained gardens, healthy environments, and AMUL products at the nearest location.
The initial model has some limitations. AMUL assumes the monetary risk that the expenditure for the garden maintenance will be less than the income generated from the retail store. However, if the gardens are not maintained properly there is little scope for recourse besides community complaints and possible negative publicity for AMUL.
The model in Vadodara has made it a condition that the retail outlets are given an initial three-year term with extensions dependent on the quality of the upkeep of the gardens. The authority there has set-up standard operating procedures for the operations and maintenance in addition to charging some nominal rent.

Last Updated: 18 October 2021