Delhi’s municipal parks could require an additional annual allocation of about ₹700 crore if the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has to strengthen staffing and security arrangements across the city’s green spaces, according to officials cited in a report by Jagran. The assessment follows directions for safety audits of parks in the context of women’s safety.
The MCD is examining the funding needed to deploy security guards where required, even as it faces shortages for park repairs, routine maintenance and staff. Officials said the civic body already struggles to fund basic infrastructure such as boundary walls in several parks, while there are not enough gardeners to maintain green spaces adequately.
The report said around 3,000 gardeners have been outsourced by the corporation. MCD officials said large parks remain open for 16 hours a day, creating a requirement for staffing across two shifts. If two gardeners were needed for each shift across approximately 15,000 parks, the total requirement would rise to about 30,000 gardeners. Officials associated this staffing requirement with an estimated additional annual cost of nearly ₹700 crore.
The figures highlight the operational scale of maintaining a large and dispersed public-park network. The source report does not provide a separate citywide estimate for the number of security guards that would be required, or a final approved plan for their deployment. Instead, the corporation is assessing the financial implications of introducing or expanding security arrangements after the safety-audit directions.
At present, MCD officials said the corporation places chowkidars mainly in parks that contain municipal stores. This arrangement covers roughly 200 parks, leaving the remaining parks without dedicated watchmen, according to the report. The staffing pattern means that security provision varies depending on the facilities located within a park rather than being uniformly available across the network.
The issue also extends beyond parks. MCD schools and hospitals are reported to be facing shortages of chowkidars. The corporation operates about 1,500 schools in 1,100 buildings, but many of these institutions do not have guards during school hours. Teachers and other employees consequently open the gates, the report said.
For residents, the funding question is directly linked to how public parks can be kept open, maintained and monitored. A safety audit may identify locations requiring additional personnel, but implementation would depend on the MCD’s ability to allocate funds and recruit or outsource staff. The corporation is currently assessing the financial requirement before taking a decision on wider deployment.
