Mumbai civic body presents Rs 52,619 crore Budget for financial year 2023-24

Municipal Commissioner and Maharashtra State-appointed Administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal presented the annual Budget of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) for the financial year 2023-24. The Budget estimates are proposed at 52,619.07 rupees crore which exceeds the Budget estimates for 2022-23 by 14.52 per cent.

This is for the first time in the history of MCGM that the budget estimates have crossed the 50,000 rupees crore mark. In the budget, the civic administration has allocated 27,247.80 rupees crore towards capital expenditure and 25,305.94 rupees crore towards revenue expenditure.

3,545 crore rupees have been allocated for the ambitious Coastal Road project that is expected to complete by this year’s end, while 1,060 rupees crore is earmarked for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, which will reduce the travel distance between the Western suburbs of Mumbai and Thane city, and Rs 2,825 crore for traffic operations and roads projects.

A total of five air purifiers were proposed in crowded areas including Dahisar toll naka, Mulund check naka, Mankhurd, Kala Nagar and Haji Ali junction. It also proposed more Charging Stations for Electric vehicles in Public Parking Areas owned by MCGM in 2023-24. MCGM has decided to develop a parking app by virtue of which all of the 32 civic public parking lots of street parking and 91 on-street parking will be regulated. The app will help citizens to pre-book parking slots.

MCGM will map the Footpath facilities for all major roads of more than 9-metre width and wherever the footpath is found to be absent or not in good shape, a new CC footpath with smooth walking quality and international surface designs will be constructed in fast track mode. A token provision of 200 rupees crore has been kept for creating pedestrian facilities.

MCGM plans ‘talking walls’ in schools with paintings and art based on class-wise curriculum content. The proposal for the creation of ‘talking walls’ in 245 MCGM primary schools for the year 2023-24 is in process.

This is for the first time in 38 years that the budget has been presented with an expired term of corporators and the civic body under administrator control. The elections to the MCGM are pending due to various reasons, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the revised definition of wards, and the implementation of the OBC quota after the tenure of the corporators came to an end on the 7th of March, 2022.