Speak up Mumbai: Out of BMC kitty, aam aadmi wants pothole-free roads

It's less than a week before the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announces a new budget. Like last year, the BMC may keep the budgetary allocation of around Rs 30,000 crore, of which around two-thirds will be allocated for revenue expenditure. The rest will be allocated on capital expenditure such as road works, solid waste management, water tunnels, sewerage lines, school buildings etc.

The departments which will continue to remain priority are roads, water supply, solid waste management, primary education, and allocation to such projects is expected to be the same. The civic body is likely to increase the health budget for the year 2019-20 to strengthen the civic-run medical system.

Many big ticket infrastructure projects, namely the Rs 12,000-crore coastal road, Rs 400-crore Goregaon-Mulund link road, Rs 14,000-crore sewage treatment plants, and Rs 10,000-crore water tunnel projects will find a mention again.

As is customary, the citizens have high hopes in the run-up to budget day. They hope that this budget addresses their hopes of a transparent tender system, crater-free roads, upgradation of civic-run hospitals among many.

VOICES

Ever since the Supreme Court had directed BMC to regulate hawker policy, it has tried to push the responsibility on police. It should make adequate provision to appoint manpower to implement hawker's policy. It should also fous on mainting open spaces. Though BMC maintains the ward office premises well, toilets are in really bad condition.
— Vidya Vaidya, Bandra

According to me, BMC should utilize the budget as much as possible. Every year hardly 40 to 50 per cent of the budget is utilized. Rather than coming up with new projects, it should complete the pending projects. More budget should be allocated for maintenance of open spaces, roads, health and infrastructure work.
— Harsh Chedda, Jogeshwari

First, BMC needs to change its way of allotting work to favourite contractors even if they are faltering in delivering good work. BMC needs to keep a strict vigil on underground pipelines —old, rusted or leaking pipelines lead to contamination of drinking water, putting health at risk. The roads of the city need more serious thinking and a good amount needs to be allocated to make roads pothole-free. Health and safety of conservancy workers should be given more importance.
— Maya Hemant Bhatkar, Kandivali

The infrastructure of Mumbai is not up to the mark. BMC should have a transparent tender system wherein quality should be the top priority. Contractors tend to quote low to get the work and then compromise on quality. There should be an audit every three months. There should be a guarantee period making the contractor responsible for the projects. Maintenance work of the projects should also lie with the contractors for at least 10 years.
— Deepak Meghnani, Chembur

This budget should not just be about announcing funds but also monitoring them. The BMC needs to ensure that they assign responsibilities on officers in-charge for spending these funds. We expect the BMC to improve the condition of roads and make them pothole-free, take care of garbage issues that are dumped on roads and improve the condition of civic-run hospitals.
— Subhash Gupta, Kurla

The walkways have been encroached a jumble of activities including parking, construction and hawking. The civic body should ensure dedicated encroachment-free space for walkers. It shoyld also spare some thoughts for city's roads which are riddled with potholes. Throughout the year they dig up roads, creating a lot of trouble for commuters. BMC needs to spend money on ideation process so that it can come up with better ideas which will benefit the common man.
— Niranjan Mahadik, Thane

We look forward to a reform-centric and transparent civic budget with a greater focus on delivering civic services. They need to build more public toilets. The signages and road signs are in a bad shape, leading to an increase in indiscipline on road. Sidewalks should be made for pedestrians, not encroachers and hawkers. Quality of education needs to improve at the civic schools. They should have competent trainers.
— Subhash Motwani, Colaba

BMC's budget is much higher than some of the state budgets in the country. The money should be utilised for enhancing and improving the current facilities by the corporation. The BMC should give us clean water, more open spaces, enough parking places, pothole-free roads, honest and efficient efforts in keeping the city clean. I would also want to have hawker-free roads and footpaths.
— Somnath Yadav, Chakala

EXPERT SPEAKS

The BMC has to work as per citizen's need. I think sanitation should one of the top priorities. Sanitation includes solid waste management, public toilets, sewerage networks and stormwater drainage. BMC should give priority to public transport system too. Though it doesn't have control over metro projects, it can improve road traffic service by providing a good network of roads. Employment is the need of an hour; BMC should emphasis on infrastructure to create employment. .
— DM Sukthankar, retired Chief Secretary of state

The BMC have to focus on four major areas — solid waste management, transport, environment and affordable housing. Collection and disposal of waste should be on the top of priority list. BMC must take serious efforts to strengthen BEST transport. It is a relatively cheaper mode of transport. Though the civic body is making efforts to provide affordable housing and a pollution free environment, it needs to work more in these areas.
— Sharad Kale, former BMC commissioner