Friday, Apr 26, 2024 | Last Update : 03:07 AM IST
BMC narrows down on plots for markets
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has narrowed down on two markets in the city to generate profits for itself on the lines of an earlier draft provision to earmark commercial properties for gener
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has narrowed down on two markets in the city to generate profits for itself on the lines of an earlier draft provision to earmark commercial properties for generating funds to aid maintenance of the city’s private heritage structures.
Funds from these markets will then be channelised to a special fund for the maintenance of public heritage structures instead of private ones.
The revised Draft Development Plan (DP) has provided for two areas, in Dadar and Ghatkopar, to be developed into markets and has identified land measuring approximately 1.5 hectares in each area.
An official from the DP department said, “We will develop retail markets on both these plots and lease out vending places to hawkers. Profits from the lease will be directly put in this fund. But this is in the planning stages and will take time to materialise.”
However, an official of the heritage department, who did not wish to be named, said, “Despite this provision in the DP, we have not been able to come up with a mechanism to ensure that the fund is not misused by falling into wrong hands with political interests. We have not chalked out a plan yet defining whether only the civic body will have access to funds, or the non-executive wing of the BMC will also be able to use it for ward-level work.”
Experts have also raised several concerns about this provision, the immediate one being the security available for this money. City-based activist Godfrey Pimenta also pointed out that the civic body has no mechanism in place to ensure that the funds are utilised properly. He said, “What is the need to have a separate fund for this The BMC is sitting on a corpus of `30,000 crore in fixed deposits. Why not use that money ”
Defending the DP provision, an official from the DP department said. “We will now begin to make detailed guidelines to address all these problems. This is a proposal in our report.” The BMC is yet to acquire the land earmarked for these two markets and is unsure of what exists on these two plots presently.
