Mumbai: The BMC will build two daycare centres for the elderly on a pilot basis, with plans to expand the project across the city if they are successful, officials told The Free Press Journal on Wednesday.
The municipality already has a provision for old-age homes – separate from daycare centres – in the Development Plan (DP) for 2014-2034. It has undertaken a first-of-its-kind project to construct a ground-plus nine-storey old age home in Goregaon (East), which will have the capacity to accommodate 70 people and contain all essential and ancillary activities, including fortnightly medical check-ups.
“The daycare centres will be set up in civic amenity spaces and run by NGOs. It will be the responsibility of the concerned NGO to offer facilities. We intend to start one centre in each ward. However, we would need to find suitable places to set them up,” a civic official said.
“Two centres will be set up in the island city on a pilot basis. There are also plans for a pick-and-drop facility. Senior citizens can be picked up from the place where they stay and dropped off at the daycare centres,” Guardian Minister (City) Deepak Kesarkar said at a press conference held at the BMC headquarters on Wednesday.
