Mumbai: BMC sanctioned Rs 1,00,000-crore projects in 2 years

Without corporatorsrsquo approval the administrator of the BMC has already spent Rs 25000 crore and aims to spend Rs 40000 crore on projects until March 2025 The BMC chief has also sanctioned mega projects worth Rs 100000 crore including Rs 12000 crore for road concreting work Rs 27000 crore for sewage treatment plants Rs 16621 crore for the VersovaDahisar Coastal Road and many bridges and roads that will extend for at least five years Additionally the BMC has faced allegations of Rs 13500 crore during this period mainly due to opposition over favouritism in road concreting street furniture tenders city beautification projects and fund distributionBMC commissioner forecasts capital expenditure to reach Rs 25316 crore by March 2024The term of corporators elected in 2017 ceased at midnight on March 7 2022 Statutory committees like the standing committee improvement committee and law committee responsible for various decisions including financial ones also ceased to function The 227 elected corporators who held their first meeting on March 8 2017 had their last working day on March 7 2022 and the city has been run by an administrator for the past two years With all the power and not being answerable to corporators the administrator Iqbal Singh Chahal sanctioned mega projects for Mumbai worth over one lakh crore rupees In addition to these mega projects several projects are in the pipeline including houses for sanitation workers bridges skywalks water projects wastetoelectricity projects at Deonar and water tunnelsExpert quoteldquoAccording to the 74th Constitutional Amendment it is mandatory to hold elections for local selfgovernment bodies at fixed intervals However the state government wants to exercise power with the help of officials in the absence of corporators During the pandemic elections were held in the state of Bihar but no elections took place in Maharashtrarsquos cities This occurred under a different government in the state Every government wants this Corporators are more accountable to citizens as they face elections every five years unlike civic officialsrdquo Abhay Deshpande a political observerMega ProjectsRoad Concreting Project Rs 12000 crore Mumbairsquos road network spans 2050 km with 98984 km already concreted by 2022 The BMC initiated concreting of 210 km in January 2022 and sanctioned another proposal for 397 km in February 2023 costing Rs 6080 crore excluding the GST of 18 per cent Now a tender for the remaining 400 km is estimated at Rs 6250 croreSewage Treatment Plants STP Rs 27000 crore Under the Mumbai Sewage Disposal ProjectII MSDP the BMC is constructing seven STPs across Mumbai treating 2464 million litres of sewage daily valued at Rs 27000 crore Sanctioned in December 2022 the BMC allocated Rs 3592 crore in 202324 and proposed Rs 5045 crore for 202425Coastal Road from Versova to Dahisar Rs 16621 crore The BMC finalised four firms in December 2023 to construct an 1847 km road with a 446 km connector to the Goregaon Mulund Link Road GMLR Projected completion is by 2028 with costs totalling R16621 croreDahisar to Bhayndar Connector Rs 1998 Crore An elevated road connecting Dahisar to MiraBhayandar spanning 5 km with BMC bearing the entire cost despite about 35 km road being in MBMCrsquos jurisdiction The project planned for completion by 2028 has an estimated cost of R1998 croreHighway Access Rs 3000 crore Approved by the BMC administrator on March 5 2024 aims to decongest nine heavy traffic junctions on the Western and Eastern Express Highways with an estimated cost of Rs 2900 croreFreeway to Coastal Road Connector Rs 662 crore An elevated road connecting the Eastern Freeway to the Coastal Road sanctioned in record time with an estimated cost of Rs 662 croreBeautification Project Rs 1700 crore Encompasses tree and pole illumination pavement reconstruction median refurbishment and flyover painting costing approximately Rs 1700 croreGMLR Tunnel R6322 crore The GMLR project spans 122 km including a 47 km tunnel beneath the Sanjay Gandhi National Park with twin tunnels to be completed by October 2028 costing Rs 6322 croreDesalination Plant Rs 3520 crore The tender process is underway for a desalination project at Manori capable of adding 200 MLD of water expandable to 400 MLD costing Rs 3520 croreMadh to Versova Bridge Rs 1800 crore A cablestayed bridge connecting Madh Island with Versova with a tender floated at R1800 croreThe allegationsIn the past two years BMC faced allegations totalling around Rs 13500 crore Mainly opposition arose over favouritism in the R6050 crore road concreting project street furniture tender city beautification project and fund distribution to ruling party MLAs and MPsStreet furniture scamA street furniture scam worth Rs 263 crore prompted Lokayukta V M Kanade to intervene asking BMC to respond by April 23 2024 Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray and BJP MLA Mohit Kamboj raised the issueRoad concreting scamShiv Sena UBT and other opposition allege a scam in awarding the Rs 6050 crore road concreting tender last year BMC cancelled a contract worth R1687 crore for the concreting of south Mumbai roads in December 2023 due to contractorsrsquo inaction UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray claims this tender is a scamBeautification project scamBMC initiated a city beautification project championed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde However the Opposition argues BMC should prioritise essential local infrastructure projects citing overspending The projectrsquos estimated cost is Rs 1700 crore with BMC having spent around Rs 766 crore and completing approximately 1200 worksDeep cleaning scamA tender to clean slum areas including public toilets and drains received objections The INDIA bloc protested alleging bias towards a certain contractor affecting thousands of volunteers in the Swacha Mumbai Prabodhan scheme BMC plans to spend Rs 1200 crore over four yearsSanitary pad vending machine scamBMCrsquos decision to install sanitary vending and disposal machines in 5000 public toilets faced criticism from Shiv Sena UBT for alleged overspending with the projectrsquos cost being Rs 42 croreFund distributionOpposition parties allege unfair fund distribution to MLAs and MPs with BMC providing special funds to ruling party representatives for local civic work Meanwhile BMC distributed R700 crore to ruling party MLAs MPs and former corporators while Opposition representatives received no funds in the current financial yearThere are no corporators in all eight corporations of the MMR of Mumbai including Thane Palghar and parts of the Raigad district The term of corporators for Navi Mumbai Vasai Virar Kalyan and Dombivli ended in 2020 Iqbal Singh Chahal administrator did not respond to phone calls and messagesRs 40000 crAmount BMC to spend by 2025Mar 7 2022Last working day of corporators