BMC annual budget: Policies to finance marginalised communities may be introduced
Announcements for new infra projects unlikely this year
3 min read
Last year, in 2023 - 2024, presented a budget of Rs 52,619.07 crore budget, which was a spike of 14.52 per cent more than the 2022-23 amount (Rs 45,949.21 crore). It was for the first time in the history of the BMC that its budget had crossed the Rs 50,000-crore mark.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) annual budget, which will be tabled on Friday, is slated to roll out a slew of policies towards providing financial assistance to the weaker and marginalised communities, owing to the fact that this is an election year. According to sources in the civic body, BMC is slated to make blanket allocations for ongoing mega infrastructure projects, while announcements pertaining to any new projects are unlikely to be made this year.
For the second consecutive year and only the third time since the civic body’s inception in 1889, the BMC’s annual budget will be presented by the municipal commissioner and state-appointed administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal. With no sitting corporators, whose terms ended in March 2022, Chahal is currently the sole authority in the civic body.
In the run up to the elections, sources in the municipal body have said that the budget will make an optimum allocation of funds for marginalised communities, weaker sections of the society and women self help groups.
Furthermore, sources added that the civic body is likely to make a blanket fund allocation in a bid to provide a boost to key ongoing projects in the city including the second phase of the Mumbai Coastal Road Project, sewage treatment projects and the ambitious Dahisar Bhayandar Link Road (DBLR).
Another key aspect, which is likely to find place in this year’s budget, is further allocation for Mumbai’s ambitious concretisation project of roads. The project had been announced in August 2022, after the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government came to power in July 2022 and announced that Mumbai’s roads would be made cement concrete and pothole-free by 2024.
Sources, however, maintained, “It is likely that there will be no new project announcements in this budget. Keeping in mind that this is an election year, the budget may roll out policies towards providing financial assistance to the marginalised and the weaker sections of the society.”
Last year, in 2023 – 2024, presented a budget of Rs 52,619.07 crore budget, which was a spike of 14.52 per cent more than the 2022-23 amount (Rs 45,949.21 crore). It was for the first time in the history of the BMC that its budget had crossed the Rs 50,000-crore mark.
You May Like
Photos
