BMC to back start-ups working to solve civic issues
The start-ups will be working to solve crisises like sanitation, education, and parking among others.
Mumbai: As part of its business incubation centre project, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has prepared a start-up hub and innovation policy that will back entrepreneurship models with solutions to local civic problems.
As per the policy, the BMC will provide infrastructure support and one-time investment to start-ups working towards solving civic issues such as sanitation, education, health management or urban planning issues such as parking and waste management etc.
According to civic officials, the BMC has selected a 4,000 sq m plot, which can house up to 10 offices, in Chakala, Andheri, to start its first incubation centre. Once the start-up idea works, BMC may raise its stakes in the profit. If the businesses fail to deliver, they will be asked to move out of the centre. A senior civic official said, “To promote various products manufactured through the centre, the BMC will not use its traditional tender system. Instead, it will procure and use them on a pilot basis for improvement of civic services.”
The project is the brainchild of Yuva Sena chief Aditya Thackeray. “The BMC’s start-up or innovation hub will be a step into the future for solutions on issues of BMC’s obligatory duties, and will also facilitate job creation in the city. This will encourage those with innovations and dreams of entrepreneurship to search for solutions,” Aditya Thackeray earlier tweeted about the project.