Projects worth Rs 600 crore to improve your city remain uncleared

Despite the tearing hurry over the last two months to clear long-pending proposals, the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the civic body has been unable to clear proposals worth Rs 600 crore. Sujit Mahamulkar and Bhavika Jain report.

Despite the tearing hurry over the last two months to clear long-pending proposals, the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the civic body has been unable to clear proposals worth Rs 600 crore.

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In the haste to clear proposals before the code of conduct for elections came into place (which begins with the announcement of the election schedule), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cleared proposals worth Rs3,600 crore in the past two months. It also drew flak for the same, as many were cleared within minutes, with little or no deliberation.

However, many pending proposals have still not been cleared, and now that the code of conduct is in place, they will now have to be put on hold. These include Rs170 crore plan for building two pumping stations, at Britannia and Guzderband, some drain strengthening work in suburbs, a Rs 8 crore proposal to appoint a third-party auditor for minor roads, and a Rs300 crore project to built sewage treatment plants at marine outfalls in Ghatkopar and Bhandup.

The failure to clear these proposals implies that work across various sectors has been stalled. The proposals that have not been cleared span across education, drainage, health and sewage treatment. They include repair of school buildings, nullah widening projects, improving storm water drain system under Brihanmumbai Storm Water Drain (Brimstowad) project, improvement of drainage system under Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP) and rebuilding of major and minor roads.

A proposal worth Rs 120 crore for supplying flavored milk to civic school children has also been kept on hold. The opening of a cancer and diabetes clinic has also been affected.