BMC budget may spur current projects, new big plans unlikely | Mumbai News

MUMBAI: With financial liabilities exceeding Rs 2 lakh crore and several ongoing infrastructure projects, the BMC is unlikely to announce new big-ticket projects in its 2025-26 Budget to be tabled Tuesday.
Instead, the focus would remain on completing existing projects such as the Mumbai Coastal Road (North) from Versova to Bhayander, the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road, and sewerage treatment plants (STPs).
Signalling its limited spending capacity, the BMC has proposed that the development of open spaces along the newly opened coastal road be funded through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
Budget 2025-26 will be the first under municipal commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, and is expected to allocate more funds to crucial departments such as roads and bridges, where major works are already underway such as the mega road concretisation project and also reconstruction of Carnac bridge in south Mumbai and Gokhale bridge in Andheri, among others.
Given the scale of ongoing infrastructure development, officials anticipate a sharp increase in expenditure in the next two years. For the current financial year, the BMC had tabled a Rs 60,000 crore budget, but revised estimates have already surpassed this figure, say civic sources.
With mounting costs and limited fiscal room, the corporation faces the challenge of balancing providing uninterrupted essential services to citizens and managing its mega project expenses.
RTI activist Anil Galgali said for the BMC, financial prudence is key. “The BMC needs to judiciously spend public money and focus on providing civic services to the best of its ability as that is also its core function,” said Galgali.
Meanwhile, the BMC’s property tax collection for the current financial year has touched Rs 4,653 crore. A civic assessment department official said they have hence revised the budget estimate to Rs 6,200 crore from Rs 4,950 crore which it had set in the last budget.
This is also the third consecutive budget being brought under the administrator’s rule in the absence of a civic house. BJP’s Ravi Raja, former BMC corporator said the civic body needs to focus on improving and maintaining its existing infrastructure.