The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has one month to present its budget for the fiscal year 2025–2026. According to the BMC’s records, as of December 31, 2024, the civic authorities had spent around Rs 18,991 crore, or 52.23%, of the authorised capital expenditure.
Up till December 31, 2023, 36.39% of the capital expenditures allotted to the city authorities had been used during the preceding fiscal year.
The majority of the budget was spent on departments related to different civic infrastructure projects, such as Bridges, Water Supply, Coastal Road, and Solid Waste Management (SWM); however, the health department and water supply also reported spending a large portion of the budget.
The BMC’s data indicates that the SWM-projects department has used the budget the most, spending 88.87% of the allotted funds to the end of December. The Water Supply Project (WSP) department used 78.86% of the cash, and the bridges department used 70.96%. While the Coastal Road Department used 61.23% of the allocated funds, the Roads and Traffic Department used 58.64%, and the Transport Department used about 69.16% of the total budget.
Additionally, the budget data revealed that 79.39% of the whole funding allotted at the beginning of this fiscal year has been utilised by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) project.
Major infrastructure projects like the coastal road were finished by the BMC this year, and a significant number of projects were undertaken under the SWM sector, including the ongoing waste-to-energy plant and the construction of two new debris recycling units, which are anticipated to be operational by the end of 2025, according to an official.
Civic authorities insisted that, given the large number of important infrastructure projects currently planned, the infrastructure sector in BMC will continue to get a sizable percentage of the cash allotted for the upcoming fiscal year.
“An increase in allocation is anticipated for the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) project, followed by the bridges department, which will begin implementing two major projects next year, including the Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR) and Coastal Road (phase 2),” the official stated.
The budget data also revealed that the Byculla Zoo used the least amount of money, at 2.72%, while all of the outlying hospitals used the most, at 7.34%.
The Coastal Road department, which was in the last stages of launching the high-speed corridor, had previously used the most cash by the end of December 31, 2023, with 50.44%. This was followed by the roads and traffic department with 46.05% and the bridges department with 32.08%.
Source: The Indian Express
