Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) fiscal budget for the year 2019-20 will continue to concentrate more on major infrastructure projects that have already been announced. Along with this, the civic body is also expected to allocate substantial funds for Swachh Bharat initiatives, flood-mitigation measures and the reconstruction of dilapidated bridges in the city.
Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta will present his fourth BMC budget on Tuesday. According to civic sources, the size of the budget is expected to cross Rs 30,000 crore.
According to civic officials, the BMC has decided not to undertake new major projects and has in-stead planned to concentrate on ongoing projects. The most important among them will be civic body’s ambitious coastal road project that has alr-eady been kick-started.
Along with it, other projects like Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR), sewage treatment plants (STPs), underground parking lots, water supply projects and Deonar waste-to-energy plant are also likely to be a priority.
This year, the BMC is expected to announce a concrete action plan for the demolition and reconstruction of various old and dilapidated bridges in the city. After the collapse of the Mahad Bri-dge on the Savitri River in 2016, the BMC had undertaken an audit of bridges, which revealed that 18 bridges are in a dangerous condition.
The flood-mitigation measures will also be undertaken with an aim to reduce the number of flooding spots during the monsoon.
To expedite the Centre’s Swachh Bharat drive, cleanliness initiatives are expected to get a further boost in the budget. “We have already undertaken various measures like construction of community and individual toilets, purchasing and distributing dustbins in various localities and segregation of waste. Additional measures will be announced in the budget to make cleanliness drive, keeping in mind the growing population of the city,” said a senior civic official.
