Huge allocations for infra in BMC’s road ahead for Mumbai

MUMBAI: Work on assessing commercial units in slum pockets for property tax has begun. However, municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani who presented the BMC budget for 2025-26 on Tuesday, made it clear such units being brought into the tax net does not mean they are legal, in case a dispute arises later.
Gagrani, for whom it was the first budget as civic chief, said in his speech, "There are around 2.5 lakh slums in Mumbai. A number of these slum areas (at least 20%, that is, 50,000 slums) are being used for commercial purposes such as small and large industries, shops, godowns, hotels, etc. As BMC provides infrastructure facilities to these establishments, it is necessary to recover property tax by assessing these commercial units. Also, this revenue will help to provide better services and infrastructure to slumdwellers." Water in commercial properties in slums would also be charged in keeping with commercial rates, he added.
While no new big-ticket projects were named by the BMC which has been corporator-less since 2022, the Rs 60.6 crore surplus budget was infrastructure-heavy, with key projects seeing increased allocations: Rs 4,300 crore for the Mumbai Coastal Road (North), up from Rs 2,900 crore last year, and Rs 8,238 crore for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, up from Rs 5,555 crore in 2024-25. The BMC has also made a request to the state govt to declare its projects as Vital Urban Transport projects, a declaration which would allow it to get more funds for these projects from the state.
The BMC is concretising 1,231 roads in two phases: Phase I began in Jan 2023 with 698 roads (324 km), and 187 roads are complete, and in the second phase, 1,420 roads (377 km) will be concretized, with work on 720 of those roads having started in Dec 2024. The BMC is targeting 75% completion of Phase I and 50% of Phase II by June 2025, with full completion by May 2026.
The budget spoke of plans to construct a Mumbai Public Park and a Mumbai Eye, on the lines of the London Eye, "at a suitable location under the PPP model."
The BMC's health budget of Rs 7,380.4 crore focuses on ward-wise comprehensive cancer care through the PPP model and includes redevelopment plans for 12 hospitals. In a bid to control pollution, the BMC aims to introduce 100 battery-operated suction machines to suppress dust particles.
The BMC's fixed deposits dipped to Rs 81,774 crore from Rs 84,824 crore, while liabilities tied to various infrastructure works rose to Rs 2.32 lakh crore in the current fiscal year from Rs. 1.99 lakh crore. The BMC has also proposed to raise funds through Internal Temporary Transfer.
Gagrani said the dip in FDs is not an indicator of BMC's financial health. "We are prioritising public works and upgradation of civic infrastructure and not defaulting on salaries, pension of our ex-staff, contractors amounts, etc," he said. DMC Prashant Gaikwad said BMC's fixed deposits, exceeding Rs 80,000 crore, earned Rs 4,851 crore in interest, up from Rs 3,891 crore last year.
The BMC received 2,703 suggestions from Mumbaikars, with many seeking an improvement in the condition of BEST. The civic chief said BEST will get financial assistance of Rs 1,250 crore for 2025-26.