BMC announces budget for FY 2021

MUMBAI: Iqbal Singh Chahal, Commissioner, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), presented the civic body’s budget for the financial year (FY) 2021-22 on Wednesday, February 17. BMC’s budget always causes a stir as it is the country’s richest civic body and its allocation is more than many states’ budget. The budgetary assessment for the present FY has been secured at Rs 39,038.83 crore, which is 16.74 per cent than the budget for FY 2020-21, that was Rs 33441.02 crore). Only 48 per cent of last year’s allocation could be spent on various development projects, attributable to the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

The state government has made infrastructure and transportation the two priority areas as the city of Mumbai gears up for civic polls in 2022.

BMC has reserved Rs 200 crore for the beautification of footpaths, traffic island, spaces flyovers and the Mumbai Street Food Hub project. An amount of Rs 150 crore has been assigned for the emending of the flood spots in the city, a key promise made by the ruling Shiv Sena ahead of the February 2022 Mumbai Civic polls.   Aditya Thackeray, Shiv Sena leader, has articulated his vision for a “sponge city, with aquifer recharge, rainwater percolation and holding tanks”. A total of Rs 961 crore have been allocated for the Bridges department. BMC has also made provision of Rs 750 crore for Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport undertaking, marking a decrease from the Rs 1,500 crore reserved last year. Two major road projects, the Mumbai coastal road project and the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, have been grantedRs2,000.07 crore and Rs1,300 crore, respectively. The Mumbai Fire Brigade has been allotted Rs 199 crore, which marks an increase from the Rs104 crore allocated last year. Rs627 crore have been assigned for the solid waste management department of Mumbai. BMC has also set aside Rs100 crore as financial disbursement for people who will be affected by various infra projects.

The civic body has allocated Rs 4,278 crore to Mumbai’s healthcare for the year 2021-22, with Rs 822.72 crore to be invested in healthcare infrastructure. This shows a minuscule increase from the Rs 4,260 crore that had been granted last year.

BMC granted Rs 2,945.78 crore to education, which is barely higher than last year’s, which stood at Rs 2,944.59 crore. A total of Rs15.90 crore has been set aside by the civic body for supplying schools with soaps and hand sanitizers to help schools foster COVID-19preventative behaviour as schools have started to reopen. A sum of Rs2 crore has been set aside for opening 10 Central Board of Secondary Education schools in existing BMC buildings.