Mumbai’s BMC budget is set to spend the most on curbing heavy traffic and the maintenance and construction of roads and bridges. On top of it, the highest share in capital expenditure of around 20 per cent is budgeted to grow by around 21 per cent in the next fiscal from the budget estimate a year ago, according to the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) budget analysis by Care Ratings. Delhi has allocated 4.6 per cent of its total expenditure towards roads and bridges in the current financial year, according to the PRS Legislative Research.
Of the total capital expenditure of Rs 14,638 crore budgeted in FY21, the top five areas of capital expenditure account for 60 per cent of the capex allocation. These five heads include roads & bridges, traffic operation, coastal roads, water supply, stormwater drains and financial aid to BEST. The MCGMumbai budget, also known as the BMC budget, has drawn a budget of Rs 33,441 crore for FY21, which is 11 per cent more than a year ago.
“The thrust of the budget this year is on providing civic services to meet its vision of Mumbai 2030 with a focus on infrastructure building, education, and healthcare,” said the Care Ratings report.
Providing world-class roads, bridging missing links and robust public transportation; pure and reliable water supply; environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient city; primary education; preventive and primary healthcare services; business development through ease of doing business and promoting tourism to create more jobs; IT-enabled governance are major areas of development, going by the vision of Mumbai’s budget.
Meanwhile, Mumbai traffic police has recently launched an initiative ‘Honk More, Wait More’ to improve the traffic conditions on roads. According to the new concept, if the decibel level due to honking exceeds a certain level, then the waiting time at the traffic signal is increased automatically. In turn, the more people honk, the more they will have to wait at the traffic signal that in turn will annoy them even more.