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BMC Budget 2021: How much India’s richest civic body plans to spend this year?
The ruling Shiv Sena has made infrastructure and transportation two key areas as the city of Mumbai gears up for civic polls in 2022.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal presented the civic body's budget for the financial year (FY) 2021-22 on Wednesday. BMC's budget always draws attention as it is India's richest civic body and its allocation is more than many states' budget. The budgetary estimate for the current financial year has been pegged at ₹39,038.83 crore, which is 16.74% higher than the budget for FY 2020-21 ( ₹33441.02 crore). Only 48 per cent of last year's allocation could be spent on various development projects, due to the raging Covid-19 pandemic.
The ruling Shiv Sena has made infrastructure and transportation two key areas as the city of Mumbai gears up for civic polls in 2022.
Infrastructure
BMC has allocated ₹200 crore for the beautification of footpaths, traffic island, spaces below flyovers and the Mumbai Street Food Hub project. An amount of ₹150 crore has been allocated for the redressal of flooding spots in the city, a key promise made by the ruling Shiv Sena ahead of the February 2022 Mumbai civic polls. Shiv Sena leader Aditya Thackeray has outlined his vision for a “sponge city, with aquifer recharge, rainwater percolation and holding tanks”. A total of ₹961 crore has been allocated for the Bridges department. BMC has also made provision for ₹750 crore for the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, marking a decrease from the ₹1,500 crore allotted last year. Two major road projects, the Mumbai coastal road project and the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR), have been allotted ₹ ₹2.000.07 crore and ₹1,300 crore, respectively. The Mumbai Fire Brigade has been allocated ₹199 crore, which marks an increase from the ₹104 crore allocated last year. ₹627 crore has been earmarked for the solid waste management department of Mumbai. The civic body has also set aside ₹100 crore as monetary compensation for people who will be affected by various infra projects.
Healthcare
BMC has allocated ₹4,278 crore to Mumbai's healthcare for the year 2021-22, with ₹822.72 crore to be invested in healthcare infrastructure. This marks a nominal increase from the ₹4,260 crore that had been allocated last year.
Education
For education, BMC has allocated ₹2,945.78 crore, which is marginally higher than last year’s, which stood at ₹2,944.59 crore. A total of ₹15.90 crore has been set aside by the civic body for supplying schools with soaps and hand sanitizers to help schools foster Covid-19-preventative behaviour as schools have started to reopen. A sum of ₹2 crore has been set aside for opening 10 CBSE schools in existing BMC buildings.
