The Times of India               20.08.2013

Civic body to re-tender contracts for tree census

MUMBAI: The tree census will be delayed this year as the civic body will opt for retendering of contracts to conduct the GIS technology-based census.

Municipal chief Sitaram Kunte on Monday announced that no blacklisted contractors will be allowed in the tendering process and the BMC is planning to re-tender contracts.

"The retendering will cause further delay in conducting the tree census. There are already two shortlisted contractors. To avoid delay, we had suggested that it should be given to other parties like Teracan with an estimate of Rs 7 crore. But the civic chief said there is a difference in their rates and hence the BMC is opting for re-tendering," said Ameet Satam, BJP corporator and member of tree authority.

According to the 2008 tree census conducted by the BMC, there were 19,17,844 trees, including dead trees. Officials said the number is likely to go up by 20% in the new census.