The state of some footpaths in and around Mumbai is well-known. Although the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had an estimated budget of ₹50 crores for fixing the footpaths in the city, the civic body has now decided to slash it by 86 per cent to just ₹7 crores.
This is in stark contrast to the civic body’s previously touted ‘Pedestrian First’ policy, and this happens to be the second year in a row that the authorities have been unable to utilize the budget allocated for footpath maintenance. In 2019, the authorities set out with a budget of ₹100 crores. However, this was then used to bail out BEST which was struggling to maintain itself.
But this year, the coronavirus outbreak and its economic consequences have forced the civic body to take this call. Understandably, activists, as well as corporators from the opposition, said that the slashing of the budget will mean the footpaths will remain in a dilapidated state.
The BMC’s original plan to revamp footpaths around the city was positioned around making them more “pedestrian-friendly”. Among the plans were to install concrete blocks by replacing the existing paver blocks. The civic body even appointed a new head for the management of footpaths, a first for the agency.
Footpaths are not the only infrastructure that will be impacted by BMC’s budget cuts. The civic body has announced cutting capital expenditure by ₹2,500 crores. Among the impacted projects are LED streetlight installations, redevelopment of Byculla Zoo, the Coastal Road project, Solid Waste Management projects as well as footpaths.
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Much to the criticism of the opposition, the BMC hasn’t made cuts to the revenue expenditure. As per the current policy, all 227 corporators under the civic body’s umbrella will get at least ₹1 crore for projects and ₹60 lakh towards the development of the area. Separately, the civic body has made amendments of around Rs 116 crore while no cuts have been made in this regard.
Samajwadi Party Corporator and MLA Rais Shaikh raised his objections at this move saying that they had asked for cuts to be made in both capital and revenue expenditures on a pro-rata basis.
“There are no cuts in ward level funds, but big-ticket projects have been hit. So there needs to be a reform in the civic budget and the way it spends the money. There is virtually no control on the way these ward level funds are spent. With only Rs 7 crore, there will be virtually no footpath repairs this year,” he said.
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