The Times of India 04.02.2010

Budget estimates raised by Rs 39 crore

TNN, 4 February 2010, 10:25pm IST

SURAT: After three days of discussions, the Standing Committee of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Thursday revised the budget to Rs 2,434 crore, which showed a 15 per cent increase in the proposed draft budget of Rs 2,395 crore earlier presented by municipal commissioner.

The capital expenditure that was pegged at Rs 1,349 crore in the draft budget has been raised to Rs 1,383 crore. The ruling BJP has made special allocations of Rs 50 lakh for the development of Dumas Chopati and Rs 20 lakh for Ovara, allotted special fund of Rs 20 lakh for the preservation and maintenance of poet Narmad's house at Amliran area of the city and increased the grant of local corporators by Rs 1 lakh except that of central zone area elected representatives. These provisions have been made as part of Swarnim Gujarat celebration. Under the same head, a special grant of Rs 50 lakh has been made for moratoriums and Rs 10 lakh each for libraries and public urinals in every zone.

The rebate on the tax paid by senior citizens on their property has also been increased by five per cent. Token allocations have been made for projects being undertaken on PPP basis like foot overbridge constructions with escalators, laser show and I-Max theatre and aquarium tunnel project.

An allocation of Rs 10 lakh has been made for Shantikunj parks for senior citizens in every zone of the city.
The Standing Committee chairman also additionally allocated Rs 1 crore for road re-carpeting in all zones, Rs 2 crore for new ACC roads, Rs 50 lakh for new integrated Gaurav Path in Adajan, Rs 1 crore for setting up swimming pools in Pandesara, Bhatar, Kosad and Rander and Rs 20 lakh for the view tower.

Mukesh Dalal, chairman, standing committee, said, "This reflects the ambitions and wishes of people of Surat. We have tried to focus on basic issues and also on infrastructure development."

Hindustan Times 02.02.2010

The good news is that the upcoming civic budget will have no new taxes and no hikes in existing taxes. The bad news is that no new projects will be undertaken in the next year.

The country’s largest municipality, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), will have a budget of around Rs 21,000 crore. Completing ongoing projects will be top priority during the next fiscal year, with most of them to be handled on both, Build-Operate-Transfer and Public-Private-Partnership basis.

The budget will be presented on Wednesday before the Standing Committee, whose chairman Ravindra Waikar said: “No new taxes will be imposed in the next fiscal budget. It will be a surplus budget.”

Municipal Commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya said: “We will unveil the budget in two days”. For roads, bridges and traffic signals, the BMC has allocated around Rs 900 crore, against last year’s provision of Rs 1,321 crore. Around 400 crore has been allocated to the concretisation of roads, and another Rs 500 crore for asphalting.

With the water crisis looming large over the city, the BMC has increased its budget provision for the water department.

Construction of the Middle Vaitarna Dam will be top priority. The BMC is planning to improve water distribution within the city — more than Rs 100 crore will be used to repair existing water mains.

A total of Rs 72 crore will be allocated for rainwater harvesting projects, while Rs 67 crore is being provisioned for construction of borewells. Sources said with only 40 per cent of the capital budget being spent this year, the rest 60 per cent will be reflected in the 2010-11 budget.