City gets just Rs50 cr, that too for Shivaji statue

The state budget has paid attention to only the rural areas, ignoring the urban parts, including Mumbai.

Nothing has been allocated for the city in the state budget, except for Rs50 crore for the Shivaji statue proposed on the Arabian Sea off Marine Lines. The statue is estimated to cost Rs300 crore. The budget does not mention how the remaining Rs250 crore will be arranged.

The budget has otherwise repeated the old announcements of the state government about development and upgrading infrastructure in the city. It mentioned about the additional carpet areas to tenants of dilapidated buildings in redeveloped buildings and 5 lakh tenements for the economically weaker sections in the Metropolitan region on leave-and licence basis. However, the projects need no budgetary provision from the government as additional FSI is an incentive given to builders.

When questioned, chief minister Ashok Chavan said Mumbai does not need separate allocation as agencies like MMRDA, MSRDC and BMC have their own provisions for infrastructure and development projects in the metropolitan region.

Finance minister Dilip Walse-Patil said his interim budget presented in March had adequate provisions for the city.

The interim budget had made allocation for the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project, which is estimated to cost Rs2,647 crore. It had also mentioned about the provisions for the corridors connecting the North-South and the East-West parts of the city. Not just Mumbai, even Pune and Nashik had allocation from the budget.