Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) standing committee on Thursday approved a proposal worth more than Rs 10.5 crore to purchase 20 new water tankers and manage their operation and maintenance for five years to water trees planted across the city. The civic body sanctioned Rs 5.5 crore for procuring the tankers and another Rs 5.0 crore for their operation and upkeep over the next five years.However, the decision has raised questions over the purpose of the tankers, as a large share of the trees planted under AMC’s plantation drive are already under the maintenance responsibility of private contractors. Under the civic body’s ‘Mission 4 Million Trees’ campaign, around 40 lakh trees were planted across Ahmedabad during the 2025 monsoon season. Of these, nearly 29 lakh were planted by private contractors who are also responsible for maintaining them.Standing committee chairman Kamlesh Patel said the tankers would primarily be used for watering trees on central verges and that AMC would benefit from owning the vehicles instead of hiring them. Garden department director A C Patel said the tankers would be used for trees planted by AMC, adding that details on the exact number of such trees would be provided later.The AMC had initially awarded contracts worth Rs 64 crore to three agencies for planting and maintaining around 20 lakh saplings. However, the contractors eventually planted nearly 29 lakh trees, increasing the project expenditure to Rs 131 crore.With contractors entrusted with maintaining most of the plantations, there is little clarity on which trees will be watered using the newly approved tankers. The proposal also does not specify how many trees were planted directly by AMC’s garden department.Plantation under the campaign was concentrated largely in the eastern parts of the city due to the availability of open land. While 10.4 lakh trees were planted in western Ahmedabad, nearly 30.4 lakh trees were planted in eastern areas.
