Chandigarh: The Chandigarh municipal corporation managed to earn around Rs 11.50 lakh in the Rose Festival organised for the first time through complete sponsorship. With this move, the civic body authority has converted this major annual festival into a complete revenue-generating exercise instead of an event of major expenditure, as earlier the MC used to spend a huge amount of its own on organising the event.Since this was the first time that the authority had hired a sponsor through a tender process to organise the Rose Festival, it got an amount of Rs 71.94 lakh, out of which Rs 60.66 lakh was spent for organising the event. Since all three days of the festival, which is held annually in the month of Feb, witnessed an enormous crowd, the authority also earned over Rs 1.62 lakh through its planned and executed events.“The total sponsored amount received through the tender process was Rs 62.32 lakh, while Rs 8 lakh sponsorship came to the MC through its own resources, which led to a total kitty of Rs 70.32 lakh. Besides that, the civic body MC generated revenue of Rs 1.62 lakh through its own resources, like selling the entry forms of different competitions, and sale of compost. Thus, the total collected amount turned to Rs 71.94 lakh, and the entire expenditure on the festival was estimated at Rs 60.66 lakh, following which around Rs 11.50 lakh was registered as the saving,” sources in the MC told TOI.Sources in the MC revealed that since the authority received such a good amount through the tender process, next time the process will be planned much earlier, so that most options of sponsorship could sought through major competition amongst the interested sponsors or bidders and the civic body could earn more revenue from the event.The MC displayed a total of 820 varieties of roses in the three-day Rose Festival, which started on Feb 20. Since the preparations were done by the MC’s horticulture department with the collaboration of other departments of the engineering wing, multiple musical and entertainment events were also organised. Besides the MC, the tourism department of the Chandigarh administration also organised the musical nights and other recreational activities at the Leisure Valley, Sector 10.
