BMC Budget 2019-20: Infra projects get little as DP takes up chunk

BMC Standing Committee Chairman Yashwant Jadhav and Civic Chief Ajoy Mehta present the Budget on Monday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Even though senior officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had said that the thrust of the civic body's Budget this year would be infrastructural projects, the Development Plan (DP) took away the cake on Monday as Municipal Chief Ajoy Mehta presented a Rs 30,692 crore-Budget.

It has exceeded last year's figure by 12.6 per cent. While the DP got the meatiest allocation of Rs 3,323 crore as compared to last year's Rs 2,665 crore, big ticket infrastructural projects received allocations lesser than expected. While the state government is yet to approve a part of the DP, Mehta, in his Budget speech said, "Last year, of the 142 amenities that were proposed to be developed, 53 were completed. Even for the upcoming year, a sizeable Budget provision has been made for the development of amenities, including playgrounds, dispensaries, hospitals, cemeteries, solid waste segregation and processing centres among others that are largely on land owned by the civic body."

He further said that in order to reduce the financial burden on the Budget, an accommodation reservation policy has been included in the DP 2034, through which citizens could hand over land for setting up amenities in return for incentives.

While GMLR received an allocation of Rs100 crore, same as last year, the allocation for MSDP dropped from Rs 538 crore (last year) to Rs 474 crore. Even the Coastal Road Project, which was expected to receive an allocation of Rs 2,000-3,000 crore this year, got Rs 1,600 crore. While the SWM department had asked for an allocation of Rs 225 crore for the waste-to-energy plant at Deonar, it received a paltry Rs 100 crore. Similarly, for the Mulund dumping ground's bio-mining project, Rs 43 crore has been allocated as compared to last year's Rs 65 crore.

While the allocation for the garden department has marginally increased from last year's Rs 244 crore to Rs 277 crore, the allocation for the Veermata Jijabai Bhosle Udyan and Zoo has almost doubled from Rs 50 crore last year to Rs 110 crore this time. The allocation for the roads department has increased from Rs 1,202 crore last year to Rs 1,520 crore this time.

Cheers for Sena
The civic body has allocated R5 crore for the Balasaheb Thackeray Memorial at Shivaji Park even though the state government will construct it. While Mehta, in his speech, referred to the Mayor's new official residence as an "iconic landmark of the city", only R1 crore has been allocated for it. The civic body has also set aside Rs 20 crore for setting up the special purpose vehicle called 'Society for Mumbai incubation - Lab to Entrepreneurship' also known as SMILE.

Education gets a boost
Allocation for education has increased from last year's Rs 2,569 crore to Rs 2,733 crore this time. In a first, the BMC plans to implement the state government's policy of direct benefit transfer. This year, funds for purchasing materials like water bottles, lunch boxes and stationery would be transferred directly to the students' bank accounts and an allocation of Rs 19.69 crore has been made for the purpose.

Health betters by 15%
Allocation for health has gone up by 15 per cent this year (Rs 4,151 crore) as compared to last year's Rs 3,636 crore. The focus this time would be on strengthening dispensaries so that the burden on major hospitals can be reduced. A provision of Rs 241 crore has been made for it, which also includes funds for buying new equipment.

Bridging the gap
With the BMC administration planning a lot of development work related to bridges, a budgetary provision of Rs 600.75 crore has been made for it. Six new major projects have been announced in the Budget, of which two are in the Island City and four in the western suburbs. A provision of Rs 37.43 crore has been made for just planning the projects.

Not the BEST one
Mehta, in his Budget speech said, "As BEST continues to make losses on inefficient operations, there is no financial provision to make capital investments. In fact, leave alone improvement and enhancement of services, there is no financial strength to even sustain the present operations." And thus, to help in a small way, BMC has allocated Rs 34.10 crore for the undertaking.

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