Delhi Budget push: Cleaning Yamuna, clearing landfills in 2 years
Infrastructure projects in the city are supposed to receive the biggest outlay for capital expenditure as compared to the last eight years of the AAP government in this year’s budget.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with Mayor Shelly Oberoi at the Okhla Landfill site. (Express file photo by Praveen Khanna) Cleaning the Yamuna and clearing the city’s three ‘garbage mountains’ on a war footing will be prioritised in the budget for this fiscal year at the core of which is a push for the capital’s infrastructure, according to sources.
In addition to strengthening and modernising Delhi’s road and transportation infrastructure, this year’s budget will focus on increasing the city’s total sewage treatment capacity from 632 mgd (million gallons per day) to 890 mgd — a significant increase of 40% in a single year.
Sources said the government aimed to almost double the existing sewer connectivity to colonies almost from 747 to 1,317 colonies next year on the one hand while the quantity of sewage being treated in Delhi would also be scaled up from 370 mgd in 2015 to 890 mgd.
Joining hands with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which it also now controls, the AAP government would provide adequate financial assistance to the civic body to get rid of Delhi’s three garbage mountains in the next 2 years, according to sources.
Infrastructure projects in the city are supposed to receive the biggest outlay for capital expenditure as compared to the last eight years of the AAP government in this year’s budget after health and education having figured as the main priority for the AAP government in every budget since it came to power in the year 2015.
The budget is scheduled to be presented on March 21, Tuesday. In the 2022-23 budget, close to Rs 2,000 crore was allocated for construction of roads and bridges. Delhi’s budget was Rs 75,800 crore last year and is expected to be around an estimated Rs. 74,000 crore this fiscal.
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