MMRDA’s Rs 4,825-crore budget to boost city’s public transport

Nearly half of the budget amount will be used to fund development of systems such as the metro and monorail.

After allocating crores to several projects that were non-starters such as Mangrove Park and Innovation Park in its previous budgets, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has formulated a realistic plan for 2012.

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The MMRDA has allocated Rs 4,825 crore for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region out of which nearly half will be used to fund the development of existing road and transport systems such as the Metro and Monorail.

The budget is less then the Rs 5,570 crore allocated last year. No new projects have been proposed this year with officials claiming they will focus on completing the pending transport projects in this financial year.

The MMRDA’s budget has made provisions to improve the city’s transport systems by allocating Rs 870 crore for the Monorail project, Rs 338 crore for the Metro project, Rs 660 crore for the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP) and Rs800 crore for the extended MUIP.

The MMRDA has been scaling down its budget from the past four years from Rs 6,653 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 6,143 crore in 2010-11 to Rs 5570 crore in 2011-12. The reduction was deliberate because we are keen on completing the projects that are in hand,” metropolitan commissioner Rahul Asthana said.