State proposes, Centre disposes, city suffers

MUMBAI: Mumbai may be the financial capital of the country, but when it comes to getting funds from the Centre, the metropolis draws a pittance. Since the July ‘05 floods, the Maharashtra government has approached the Centre with proposals seeking funds for Mumbai’s infrastructure upgradation for projects worth Rs 10,830 crore. However, it has so far drawn a blank.

A senior bureaucrat told ET, “The Centre has reservations about certain issues and wants us to carry out civic reforms before allotting the funds.” The Centre, it may be recalled, has asked the state to carry out reforms like repealing the Urban Land (ceiling & regulation) Act and the Maharashtra Rent Control Act to be eligible for funds.

The floods in July last year had exposed the sorry state of Mumbai’s infrastructure. When a central fact-finding team visited the state to assess damages, chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had pegged the losses at Rs 12,477 crore. This included Rs 3,900 crore for three projects — Rs 1,500 crore for rehabilitation of slum-dwellers, Rs 1,200 crore for cleaning the Mithi river, and Rs 1,200 crore for repairing the drainage system.

However, except for the Rs 1,200 crore released by the Centre in the form of cash and foodgrains immediately after the floods, Maharashtra has so far not received a penny, Mantralaya officials told ET. “The Centre had categorically ruled out any assistance for infrastructure overhaul.

It assured reimbursement of damages on a scale that would restore the infrastructure, roads, canals, government property, to their pre-flood state,” an official said. Mumbai-specific proposals worth Rs 3,900 crore were, thus, promptly brushed aside.

Last month when the Planning commission members were in Mumbai to discuss the eleventh five-year-plan, Mr Deshmukh indicated his displeasure over not getting help from the centre. “Since we did not get funds from the centre to compensate for the losses, we spent from our own budget diverting allocations meant for development and infrastructure,” the CM had told the Planning commission.

For the first time in Maharashtra’s history, the state budget for the fiscal ‘05-06 had allocated Rs 1,200 crore for Mumbai-specific projects. “This was a matching grant for projects cleared by the centre under National Urban Renewal Mission(NURM). But the mission was launched in December ‘05 after which we promptly submitted our proposals for Mumbai,” an official said.

In January this year, Mumbai submitted four proposals worth Rs 5,883 crore under NURM. The proposals included Rs 2,376 crore sewage disposal project, Rs 1,800 crore BRIMSTOWAD (Brihanmumbai storm water drainage) upgradation project, Rs 1,600 crore Middle Vaitarana water supply project, and Rs 107 crore coastal guard scheme.

Under the NURM guidelines, the centre bears a share of 35 % of the project outlay, the state government 15 %, and the municipal corporation of the city 50 %. So far, the Centre has not released its share for any of these projects.

Though the BMC and the state government have to contribute around Rs 3,000 crore and Rs 870 crore from their coffers, the allocations are meaningless if the centre does not release its share.

Despite the pending demands, Mumbai recently asked for more central aid. Chief secretary DK Sankaran said last week, that the centre has agreed to fund the BRIMSTOWAD project fully. “It’s not on the NURM agenda as far as my information goes.

The centre has agreed to fund it entirely and we expect assistance of Rs 630 crore for the first phase soon,” Mr Sankaran said. The state has also requested the centre to bear Rs 500 crore in the viability gap funding for the first phase of the Mumbai Metro project.