BMC Budget 2023-24 Highlights: Focus on education, mitigating air pollution

BMC budget 2023-24: Highlights 

🔴 The civic body has planned to install air purifiers in five most-crowded parts of the city — Dahisar Toll Naka, Mulund Check Naka, Mankhurd, Kalanagar Junction, and Haji Ali Junction.

🔴 The BMC has announced a ‘Mumbai Clean Air Initiative’, that will push towards three broad goals: 1) to curb pollution concentration; 2) to initiate a multi-level monitoring strategy; 3) to decentralise planning and community health awareness to reduce personal exposure.

🔴 Rs 25 crore has been allocated for mitigating air pollution and sustainable waste management measures the next financial year.

🔴 The Mumbai civic body has announced a digital classroom programme, under which a systematic database of education curriculum will be created and classes and curricular activities will be carried out through LED smart boards.

🔴 Under the new National Education Policy 2020, students from select BMC schools will be given skill development training in their field of interest. Courses like electronics, hotel management, apparel, fashion designing, food service, health and hygiene, automobile, tourism and hospitality will be available in some secondary schools from June 2023.

🔴 BMC plans on creating talking walls in schools with art based on class-wise curriculum content.

🔴 It has proposed the establishment of maths and science centres on a pilot basis in 88 BMC primary schools for the year 2023-24. The objective is to enhance the educational quality and to develop observation, concentration and comprehensive skills, attentiveness and scientific approach. These science centres will include small format games like Newton’s disk, centrifugal force, electric current, geometric figures, mathematics etc.

🔴 BMC intends to build 35 well-equipped sports centres. Among them, 10 have already been established in the last year.

🔴 A fund of Rs 250 crore has been earmarked for various social impact initiatives, including financial schemes for women, differently abled, transgenders, senior citizens, and a women’s training scheme.

🔴 The Mumbai Fire Brigade has been allocated Rs 227.07 crore, which is approximately 30 per cent less than what it was allotted last year.

🔴 The BMC has introduced a pedestrian-first policy, under which any road which is more than 9 metres wide will have a footpath on both sides. The civic body has identified the roads through a survey and construction work will commence from April.

🔴 In the next 3 years, BMC will concretised 100 per cent of the existing roads in Mumbai.

🔴 Rs 3,545 crore have been allocated for the ambitious Coastal Road project that is expected to complete this year end, the budget document states.

🔴While Rs 1,060 crore are earmarked for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, which will reduce travel distance between Western suburbs of Mumbai and Thane city, and Rs 2,825 crore for traffic operations and roads projects.

🔴According to the budget document, post pandemic, in academic year 2022-23 BMC identified 316 migrant children and enrolled them to mainstream of schools under the Right To Education 2009 providing free and compulsory education for children. A budgetary provision of Rs.10 lakh has been provided for the same.

🔴Top allocations include:  1) Coastal Road: Rs 3553.26 crore  2) Mumbai sewerage disposal project: Rs 3591.86 crore 3) Solid Waste management department: Rs 4710.25 crore 4) Storm water drains department: Rs 3266.15 crore  5) DP department: Rs 1320.20 crore 6) Roads and traffic: Rs 3630.71 crore  7) Bridges: Rs 3179.81 crore  8) Fire brigade: Rs 666.27 crore   9) Garden and zoo: Rs 712.93 crore

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