Mumbai makeover

Little in budget for the city. Whose fault? Maharashtra government’s

P Chidambaram doesn’t forget easily. Last December his not-so-pleasant experience with Pune’s crater-filled roads prompted him to speak his mind: “If you want investments, please lay good roads, build flyovers and create better infrastructure.” This year, his Budget showered Pune with a neat Rs 50 cr to get its act together prior to hosting the Commonwealth Youth Games. Near Pune, a little over three-and-a-half hour’s drive on the expressway is a city, rendered maximum in its ambition and potential, that has been looking at pretty much the same challenges for years together. Commonwealth Games-blessed Delhi has been showered with budget goodies — Rs 350 cr as special allocation, Rs 150 cr for the ministry of youth affairs and sports, Rs 1,204 cr for modernising the Delhi Police, not to talk of the tax holiday for hotels and a whopping Rs 564 cr for the National Capital Region Planning Board.

So what did Mumbai get? Nothing substantially more than a mention from the finance minister that the report on turning it into a regional financial centre would soon be made public for feedback. That was all for a Mumbai which despite contributing Rs 58,000 cr to the Centre in annual tax contributions. Whose fault is it? Mumbai is a city of unique opportunities, unrivalled problems, and nuanced inconveniences that run through all spheres of life. But it also has been under state governments who refuse to change bad laws:

ULCRA and rent control, to name two. These laws block access to funds and in large measure lead to bad and/or little urban development. The Centre has approved infrastructure projects worth Rs 856 cr for Mumbai under the JNURM. So far, Mumbai has received

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Rs 26.36 cr. The blame chiefly lies with the Maharashtra government, which has to act as the facilitator before the municipality can act as the implementor.

Mumbai’s civic body is unique: with a budget outlay of Rs 12,500 cr, it operates an electricity supply system with 820,000 consumers, a fleet of buses benefiting 45 lakh passengers, colleges, a host of museums — there will be a sex museum too. This is a city that can be the best advertisement of dynamic cosmopolitanism in India. But for that the government that sits in Mumbai will have to realise it isn’t presiding over a large village.