The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest civic body in the country recently presented its annual budget for 2016-17. This is going to be the last budget before civic body goes in for elections next year. Let’s take a look at some of its key highlights.

1: Weak Real Estate Eats into BMC’s Revenues
At Rs. 37,052.15 Crore, this years budget is almost 10% higher than last year’s budget of Rs. 33.514.1 Crore. Surprisingly, this increase comes at a time when the BMC is losing revenues from Octroi duties and Development charges. Experts blame the fall in development charges on the ongoing real estate slump, which in turn has caused real estate developers to go slow on construction activities.

2: Infrastructure Projects Take Priority
Any city that aspires to become world class should have its basic infrastructure in place and the BMC budget seems to have understood this. For starters, Rs. 1,000 Crore been allocated for Mumbai’s ambitious Coastal Road project with an additional Rs. 130 Crore allotted for the Goregaon-Mulund Link road. Mumbai’s streets will also be brighter with Rs. 10 Crore allotted towards LED street lights.

3: Lessons from the Deonar Fire
Mumbai’s inability in managing its solid waste has been exposed after the fire at Deonar dumping ground, andthe BMC has taken action. The BMC has proposed installation of CCTV Cameras, higher security as well as roads at the Deonar and Mulund dumping ground. The BMC has also floated tenders for the appointment of a consultant for establishing a 2,000 TPD capacity waste to energy project at Deonar with proposals to develop world-class waste processing centers at Mulund-Airoli site or Taloja.

4: More Money Allotted for the Urban Poor
In order to make the budget more egalitarian the BMC has proposed Rs. 9,187.95 crore for upliftment of the urban poor which is 8% higher than last year’s allotment. Through this, the corporation wants to improve existing facilities and provide better amenities for the urban poor. Slums have also gained importance, with Rs. 100 Crore proposed for slum sanitation as against Rs. 10 Crore last year.

5: Smart City Dreams Continue
Although Mumbai could not make it to the first round of Smart Cities Challenge the corporation has not lost hope. The BMC has allotted Rs. 10 Crore towards the smart city project, with plans to make the city IT enabled and sustainable.

While these proposals look great on paper, we will have to wait and see how much of this will actually be executed on the ground.

Ashwini Priolker, Reporter, NDTV