Mumbai, March 14 -- Even as the academic year draws to a close with students all set to appear for their final exams, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has mooted an excursion for 66,630 municipal school students in classes 4 and 7 at a cost of Rs.4.4 crore. In a proposal presented before the BMC's standing committee on March 11, the civic body said the excursion was important for the all-round development of students. The BMC suggested only one agency, Shreyansh Enterprises, for taking students on excursion and even sought relaxation of the mandatory public call for bids. According to the proposal, 36,720 class 4 students in BMC schools would be taken to Byculla zoo at a cost of Rs.2.31 crore, at the rate of Rs.630 per student, while 29,064 class 7 students would be taken to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) at a cost of Rs.2.03 crore, at Rs.700 per head. The standing committee has referred the proposal back to the administration, seeking clarifications, BMC officials said. Standing committee chairman Prabhakar Shinde said it was unclear why a picnic was being planned so late in the academic year. "Since they have raised a demand only for students of classes 4 and 7, what about students from other classes? It's also not clear if the excursion for more than 66,000 students can be managed in such a short duration," Shinde told HT. Chairman of the education committee Rajashree Shirwadkar was more direct. The proposal seemed to have been introduced in a hurry, to favour a certain contractor, she said. "Let students have two picnics in their next academic year," Shirwadkar noted....