Professional photographers now charged for shoots at Puducherry’s Bharathi park

Puducherry Municipality charges ₹500 for professional photo shoots in Bharathi Park to boost revenue and maintain cleanliness.

The Puducherry Municipality has started charging people for using Bharathi Park for photo shoots, as part of the civic body’s efforts to shore up revenue.

Municipality Commissioner M. Kandasamy said the civic body has started collecting a fee of ₹500 from professional photographers and videographers to use the park premises for shoots. No fee is collected from visitors taking photographs or videos using their mobile phones or own camera, he said.

“Professional photographers and videographers come from several places to Puducherry for photo and video shoots. Bharathi Park is one of their preferred shooting locations. They get a lot of money from their clients. We decided to levy a fee for use of the park. Last month, we collected around ₹50,000 through this,” he said. 

The Municipality has recently recruited around 20 self-help group (SHG) members to maintain the garden inside the park, he said adding that the civic body has to raise its own resources to meet its committed expenditure. “We have to provide ₹10,000 in monthly salaries to the self-help group members for maintaining the park. We can raise at least part of the salary amount from the fee charged for shoots,” he said. 

Mr. Kandasamy also appealed to the visitors thronging the park to not carry food with them all across the park. Visitors should use the place earmarked at the main gate near the Nehru Statue to eat their food, he said. Dumping of food by visitors was the main reason rodents and stray dogs came into the park, he pointed out.