Mumbai: Presenting its highest-ever budget, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has allocated Rs 74,427.41 crore for the financial year 2025-26, dipping into its fixed deposits once again to fund its big-ticket infrastructure projects.
Since a state-appointed administrator has been running the corporation, the BMC has been dipping into its reserves, considered sacrosanct up until now.
Some of the big-ticket projects that BMC is constructing include the north leg of the Coastal Road, the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, the elevated road from the link road in Dahisar (West) in BMC limits to Mira-Bhayandar (West) in the Mira Bhayandar corporation limits, and the elevated road from Eastern freeway Orange Gate to Grant Road.
This is the third budget under an administrator. This time, Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani presented the budget. It exceeds the 2024-25 budget estimates—Rs 65180.79 crore—by 14.19%.
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The budget focuses on capital expenditure and big-ticket infrastructure projects amid financial pressure on the BMC.
To fund the works, the BMC has proposed to dip into fixed deposits (FDs) of Rs 39,543.64 crore, which, Gagrani said, has now been tied up towards funding the infrastructure projects.
“Considering the overall current financial position, it will be necessary to raise sufficient funds for our projects till and beyond March 2025. Therefore, the proposal is to raise funds of Rs 12,119.47 crore and Rs 16,699.78 crore in revised budget estimates of 2024-25 and 2025-26, respectively, through ITT (internal temporary transfer),” Gagrani said.
The share of capital expenditure has been increasing over the past few years. Since 2017-18, there has been a consistent decrease in the share of revenue expenditure from 75% to 42% while the share of capital expenditure has increased from 25% to 58% in the BMC’s total expenditure.
Another highlight of the budget is the focus on education and urban sustainability.
The BMC has allocated Rs 3,955.64 crore towards education, marking an increase of roughly Rs 63 crore compared to last year’s revised estimates of Rs 3,321.55 crore.
The civic body also announced an assessment for raising commercial units in slum areas as a new source of income. This way, it plans to generate Rs 350 crore in property taxes.
Mumbai Guardian Minister and Deputy CM Eknath Shinde said, “This is a development-oriented budget. This is the budget for Mumbaikars. This means Mumbai is going for development. In the next two-and-a-half years, Mumbai will be pollution-free and pothole-free.”
Speaking to the media, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said, “This budget has full Adani imprints. Now, there will be tax on small businessmen. For whom is it being done? Even we as Mumbaikars will now have to pay tax on solid waste. This all needs to be stopped. Else, we will have to come out on the roads and protest.”
Infrastructure focus
The lion’s share of the BMC’s budget is for key infrastructure projects.
For the prestigious Mumbai Coastal Road’s second phase, the BMC allocated Rs 4,000 crore to connect Versova with Dahisar. For the nearly finished South phase of the Coastal Road—which is 94% complete—it allocated Rs. 1,516 crore.
For the Goregaon-Mulund Link road, nearly Rs 2,000 crore is set aside. This east-west connectivity—touted as one of the most important projects—is expected to be completed by 2028.
For the Mumbai Sewage Disposal project, a highest of Rs 5,545 crore is allocated. This will fund the construction of seven sewage treatment plants, scheduled to be operational in phases between 2026 and 2028.
The civic body allocated Rs 3,111 crore for the road concretisation project, which is being underway. In Phase 1, work on 698 roads(324 km) was started in January 2023. Of these, 187 roads (roughly 26%) have, so far, been concretised while work on the remaining roads are in progress.
In Phase 2, a total of 1,420 roads (377 km) are proposed to be concretised. Work on 720 roads was started in December 2024.
Nearly 75% of Phase 1 work and 50% of Phase 2 work are proposed to be completed before June 2025—which will then help to minimise the issue of potholes during the monsoon.
The BMC will also be looking at making footpaths walkable. For the roads and traffic department, Rs 4,111.51 crore is proposed in 2024-25 and Rs 5,100 crore in the 2025-26 budget estimates.
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Focus on education
One of the key initiatives introduced in the budget is ‘Mission SAMPURN (School Infrastructure, Admission, Merit, Productivity, Universalisation, Responsibility, Nutrition, and Health)’, which will take off from the 2025-26 academic year.
“The mission aims to ensure the holistic development of students by focusing on infrastructure upgrades, improving admission processes, academic excellence, and student well-being,” Gagrani said.
To improve nutrition for BMC students, the education department plans to launch the ‘Purak Poshan Aahar’ scheme.
Under this initiative, students from nursery to Class 10 in BMC-run schools will be provided supplementary nutrition, along with the existing mid-day meal programme.
Further, the BMC plans to establish science parks in two school buildings on a pilot basis to promote hands-on learning in scientific subjects.
The BMC also plans to enhance digital literacy and is looking to introduce a new cyber literacy project.
Four new CBSE board schools have taken off in 2024-25. In total, of 21 schools, 18 schools remain affiliated with the CBSE board, and one school with ICSE, IGCSE, and IB Board each.
The process for setting up an astronomical laboratory on a pilot basis under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is also underway.
Other features
The BMC has also proposed the construction of the ‘Mumbai Eye’—on the lines of the ‘London Eye’—under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model at a yet-to-be-determined location. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) earlier scrapped the proposal to erect the ‘Mumbai Eye’ after being unable to find a suitable location.
Under the Goregaon Mulund Link Road project, the BMC intended to construct a tiger monument in collaboration with the forest and tourist department of the state government at a suitable place in the tunnel passing under Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
For the struggling Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST), the BMC has allocated Rs 1,000 crore this financial year.
This amount will be given on account of expenditure on infrastructural development and purchase of capital equipment, repayment of loans, new buses on a wet lease basis, pay revisions, day-to-day expenses, ITMS project, payment of Diwali bonus to employees, gratuity and other dues of pensioners, electricity dues, etc. According to the state government’s directives, Rs 128.65 crore will be for a project the BEST is undertaking to procure and deploy 2,000 electric buses for Mumbai city.
The BMC also focussed on the Mumbai climate action plan, proposing to continue Shinde’s deep cleaning project.
On the revenue front, the BMC’s plan to build commercial units in slums comes in the backdrop of the roughly 2.50 lakh slums in Mumbai. A significant number of them—at least 20% or 50,000 slums—are being used for commercial purposes, such as small and large industries, shops, godowns, hotels, etc.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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