Infrastructure Projects Gain Major Share Of BMC's Budget

On February 2, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in India, presented Rs 27,258 crore for Mumbai for the financial year 2018-19 (FY19). Infrastructure development remained the key highlight of the document with the civic body allocating a major chunk of the money for road projects.

While Rs 1,500 crore was earmarked for the Coastal Road project, the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project was allocated Rs 100 crore. To provide an alternate transport network in a city that suffers iconic traffic snarls, the BMC will spend Rs 100 crore to build a cycling track along the Tansa pipeline. To build storm-water drains, Rs 566 crore has been kept aside. In total, the spending on road development has increased from Rs 1,079 crore last year to Rs 1,202 crore in the new financial year.

In March, the BMC chief announced his plans to make use of the fixed deposits to develop infrastructure. The BMC has funds to the tune of Rs 69,000 crore in its piggy bank, of which Rs 48,000 crore could be used to fund projects — the BMC acts as the trustee of the remaining Rs 21,000 crore.

"Revenue income has become primarily dependent on the growth of the real estate sector. Therefore from the next financial year we will have to resort to withdrawal from special reserves funds created from time to time," BMC chief Ajoy Mehta was quoted in media as saying in February.

The civic body’s infra push is also evident from the fact that it has spent over 83 per cent of the allotted budget for developmental activities for the first time in the recent years. According to officials, the BMC spent Rs 5,052 crore on capital expenditure against the allotted budget of Rs 6,111 crore in FY18, an increase of 31 per cent when compared to FY17. It is also the highest spend on infrastructure in the past decade.

Where are the key roads headed?

According to media report, the work on the Mumbai Coastal Road is likely to stay this month. Four years later, Mumbai will have a new eight-lane road that will act as a link between the island city and the western suburbs. Since the GMLR project has yet to receive an environmental clearance, work on the project might start only in the later part of this year.

With inputs from Housing News