From helipads to biogas plants, BBMP budget may be high on promises

With assembly elections barely two months away, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) budget scheduled to be presented on Wednesday is likely to dole out plenty of sops. Development of helipads in all eight zones of the city, tree parks and bio-methane plants to treat waste at ward level are among the slew of projects which may be announced.

Congress and JD(S), ruling parties in the civic agency, are banking on the budget to hype their contributions to Bengaluru while wooing voters, notwithstanding the grim state of the city’s administration.

Mayor R Sampath Raj told TOI they are looking at a holistic approach and the civic budget will have something for everyone. “It will be smaller that the Rs 9,900 crore budget presented last year,” he said. Sources in the BBMP say the agency will present a budget of around Rs 9,000 crore this time.


The third budget of the coalition will be presented by JD (S) member M Mahadev, chairman of the standing committee on finance and taxation.

Sources said there will be a special focus on the health sector. “Schemes like reimbursement of medical cost to the poor, 100 bike ambulances, improvement of facilities at dialysis centres among others will be announced,” he added.

Water harvesting along storm water drains
In order to avoid flooding and push up the plummeting groundwater table, BBMP is set to announce a project to dig percolation pits along the length of storm water drains (SWDs) in the city. “For a cleaner and greener city, waste-to-biogas plants at ward level are expected to be announced. This will stop the burden of transporting waste from one place to another,” said a source.

Asked whether the Palike has enough revenue to execute the plans, the mayor said they will streamline property tax generation and generate revenue from other sources as well. “We are expecting support from the government in the form of grants as announced in the state budget,” he added.

BBMP may promise Bengalureans the moon, but the reality is that most of the schemes announced in the past haven’t seen the light of the day.

A look at budget statistics of the past six years (see table) shows not even 50% of the outlays have been spent due to fall in revenue generation or lack of the necessary support from the government in terms of grants.