3 agencies ready to develop urban forest in Gurgaon, says GMDA

Gurgaon: The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority’s (

GMDA

) plan to develop an

urban forest

is gaining pace. Three private agencies have expressed interest in undertaking the project, which will be spread across 200 acres in Chakkarpur and Sikanderpur.

The metropolitan authority has now asked the three agencies —

DLF Foundation

,

iamgurgaon

and IORA Ecological Solutions — to submit their project proposals for further evaluation.

The project was approved by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the GMDA meeting held in April.

According to authority officials, they had sought expressions of interest (EoI) from private agencies for the development of the urban forest under corporate social responsibility. “We received three interest bids and have asked the agencies for detailed project plans. Once they submit the plans, we will evaluate them and assign the project depending on the merit of the proposal,” said a senior GMDA official.

“It is not necessary that only one agency be selected for the project. Memoranda of understanding may be executed with different agencies for different proposed works,” the official added.

The selected agencies will not claim any funds from GMDA and will have to arrange for their own mechanism for fund generation.

One of the agencies, iamgurgaon, is a city-based NGO which was responsible for the maintenance of the Aravali Biodiversity Park until recently, when Hero Motocorp took over its upkeep. Meanwhile, IORA Ecological is a Delhi-based organisation that works in the biodiversity and climate change sectors. It is already working on an afforestation project with the state government. While TOI reached out to all the three agencies for a comment, only iamgurgaon responded. “We have expressed interest. We are committed to taking up restoration projects in the city. With our experience, we should be able to do justice to it,” said Latika Thakural, a member.