In what may be an additional financial responsibility for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), headed by Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra state government has declared that the civic body will fund
In what may be an additional financial responsibility for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), headed by Shiv Sena, the Maharashtra state government has declared that the civic body will fund the entire smart city project for Mumbai. Giving Mumbai another chance at being part of the central government’s smart cities project, a high-power committee set up by the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) has selected yet another eight cities within the state to be pitched for the smart cities project, which includes Mumbai. These eight cities are over and above the initial 10 cities that had qualified for the project in the first round. However, these cities will not receive any funds from the Central government and will have to fund the project on their own. The BMC will have to bear the entire cost of the project. This decision was made by a government resolution of the GoM on June 18.
However, this may prove to be sour news for Shiv Sena, which had been consistently opposed to Mumbai being pitched for the project. Shiv Sena had pushed for its own reforms within the proposal, and opposed passage of the proposal in the BMC’s general body meeting in December last year.
Effectively, the administration was forced to inculcate the points proposed by Shiv Sena, outside of the guidelines given by the Central government. Subsequently Mumbai did not feature in the first list of 10 cities selected by the government. A senior civic official said, “We are not sure if the changes made by the Shiv Sena in the original proposal will be part of this proposal as well. However, this new proposal will also have to be approved by the standing committee and the BMC’s general body.”
However, despite several attempts to reach Sena leaders, they refused to comment on the matter. Leader of the House Trushna Vishwasrao said, “I will have to discuss my party’s stand and will comment only after that.”
Mayor Snehal Ambekar and standing committee chairman Yashodhar Phanse remained unavailable for comment.
The state government has provided for a committee to bring the project to fruition, which will include the mayor of Mumbai Snehal Ambekar, leader of the House Trushna Vishwasrao, standing committee chairman Yashodhar Phanse, leader of the Opposition Pravin Chedda, and one government nominee, which is municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta.
