BENGALURU: The BBMP will present its budget with an outlay of Rs 7,500-8,000 crore with emphasis on infrastructure and welfare schemes. BBMP Taxation and Finance Committee Chairman M. Shivaraju told Deccan Chronicle that improvement of traffic flow, better roads, drains and garbage management are the major areas which needs immediate attention and emphasis will be accorded for these sectors. Welfare schemes too will get greater allocation in the forthcoming budget.
Maintenance of roads and drains will get a major chunk of the budgetary allocation. At least 50 roads will be taken up under the TenderSure specification, which will put an end to digging in these roads. Flyovers and metal bridges will be built at crucial junctions and major roads. Some of the roads have already been identified and a final consensus will be taken in this regard, he said.
The BBMP is also contemplating many citizen friendly programmes. For instance, it may consider providing a one-time rebate for those installing Rain Water Harvesting and appreciating citizens who plant saplings in their neighbourhood, Shivaraju added. “The officials have given a draft budget and sector wise allocation required estimating Rs 7,000 crore. We will table a realistic budget and not an inflated one. Thrust will be given for tech based tax and revenue mobilization. Optical Fibre Cable network is one of the potential areas where the BBMP can mop up a major chunk of revenue and it will be fine tuned in consultation with the state government to fix the fee,” he said.
Already meetings are being held with the heads of various departments and requests of allocations have been sought. A delegation will meet City Development Minister K.J. George and seek additional state government grants for the development of Bengaluru.
