Unhappy feat: Zoo spent nearly 80 per cent of its income on penguins

The penguins in their enclosure when the zoo reopened in February. Pic/Ashish Raje

While the opposition has slammed the Shiv Sena-ruled civic body for issuing a tender at an estimated cost of Rs 15 crore for the maintenance of seven penguins at the Byculla zoo for the next three years, the BMC administration says the revenue of the zoo increased manifold after their arrival, and even after deduction of their maintenance cost, it is more than what it was before. The Veermata Jijabai Bhosale Udyan received revenue of Rs 14.46 crore in three years after they displayed the penguins and it spent Rs 11.46 crore, nearly 80 per cent of the revenue, on their upkeep. However, BMC officials are ready for a review and to see if something can be done to reduce the cost of maintenance.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) floated a tender worth Rs 15.26 crore for 36 months for the maintenance of the penguins on August 13. Leader of Opposition in BMC, Ravi Raja of the Congress, objected to the high maintenance cost. He said that more than Rs 11 crore has already been spent on the penguins under the current three-year contract which expires this month and there is no need to spend so much on them.

Also Read: Why spend so much on penguins again? Congress criticises BMC

Civic officials have said the penguins were a major tourist attraction before the zoo was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. "The total cumulative income of the zoo between April 2014 and March 2017 i.e. 3 years was Rs 2.10 crore. However, after the arrival of penguins in March 2017, the total cumulative income between April 2017 and March 2020 was Rs 14.36 crore. The total value of the tender for expenditure on penguins was Rs 11.46 crore," said Iqbal Singh Chahal, municipal commissioner. He added that it is clear that increase in the income of the zoo after the arrival of the penguins is much more than the expenditure on their maintenance.

However after the criticism, senior BMC officials have assured that they will hold a review and see if some components like medical team, etc. can be taken care of inhouse and the outsource amount reduced. "But if it is not possible then we will stick to the earlier decision of going with the allocated amount in the tender," said an official.

"We appreciate that the BMC has finally decided to rethink its decision of allocating Rs 15 crore for the maintenance of penguins in Byculla zoo. Let us hope that the money saved is spent on better healthcare and good civic infrastructure," said Prabhakar Shinde, group leader of BJP.

Zoo revenue through the years
Financial year No. of visitors Revenue (')
April 2014 - March 2015 12,40,782 67,03,449
April 2015 - March 2016 12,51,149 70,03,256
April 2016 - March 2017 13,80,271 73,65,464
April 2017 - March 2018 17,57,059 4,36,66,998
April 2018 - March 2019 12,71,271 5,42,46,353
April 2020 - March 2021 10,66,036 4,56,46,150