As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation gears up to present the budget for the financial year 2011-12,the three months of code of conduct before the civic elections in February 2012 is likely to give the city yet another year without any new major infrastructure work being undertaken. BMCs delicate financial situation had stopped it from undertaking any new projects in the current financial year. Officials admitted the next financial year would see a similar trend,accentuated by the code of conduct period beginning November. While officials in the finance department said the budget for 2011-12 is better than the current year in terms of total estimates for capital expenditure,they admitted that the priority will be completing ongoing projects and new ones wont be started as the improvement is not drastic. Even for completing existing projects,tenders will have to be invited and awarded between April and September. Naturally,the quantum of works allocated and undertaken will reduce, said an official. Sources within various departments said despite improvement in BMCs overall financial position,the focus is unlikely to shift to undertaking new projects. Among the many pending new infrastructure projects is the vital underground car parking project proposed to come up at seven locations between Regal Cinema in Colaba and Crawford Market. Though allocations were made for one parking lot in the budget of 2010-11,no work was undertaken due to fund crunch. A senior official said the project is unlikely to take off in the next financial year too. The project is very expensive,costing up to Rs 30 lakh for a single parking space. We will have to explore financially feasible models for carrying out the project but it is unlikely to happen anytime soon, an official said. However,political parties are likely to make use of the months before the code of conduct to get important projects sanctioned. Shiv Sena corporators and MLA Ravindra Waikar said they will ask the BMC to expedite the tendering process of important projects such as the Gargai dam project to augment the water supply to the city,remaining components of the multi-crore BRIMSTOWAD project that will overhaul the century-old storm water drainage system in the city and new roads projects. Congress corporator Sameer Desai said since no new road concretisation work was undertaken in the current financial year,some roads should be taken up this year. Roads and BRIMSTOWAD projects should be given priority, he said. In terms of the overall budget size,the final figure of Indias richest civic body is set to further bloat this year by at least Rs 500 crores. The last years budget was Rs 20,417 crore. This year the figure is set to easily cross the Rs 21,000 crore-mark, said a member of the standing committee. The larger outlays are a result of good collection from the octroi department in the past few months,which is the biggest source of revenue for the BMC. Meanwhile,officials said they were hopeful of getting an internal loan of Rs 3,000 crore sanctioned from the state government. The loan is taken from special BMC funds which are kept as contingency funds. The state government has still not accepted BMCs demand to raise Rs 1,000 crore for 2009-10 and Rs 2,000 crore for 2010-11. In the past month,the finance department of the state governments urban development department has approved the sanctioning of the amount. We now need the final approval from the state cabinet,which we are hopeful of getting, said an official.
