Mumbai: BMC to take up 107 projects from Development Plan of 2034 this year

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Learning from its previous mistakes when it did not execute even 30% of the Development Plan (1991), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation began to implement Development Plan 2034 from last year, before it was sanctioned. About 107 works from the draft DP 2034 are being taken up this year by the BMC.

The works undertaken
While 45 works were pending from last year's execution of the draft DP 2034, this year a new target of 62 works which include constructing dispensaries, gardens, schools, has been given to ward officials and various departments. BMC wants to ensure that the implementation is in full swing, and for this, it has also made budget provisions in the financial year. The zonal deputy municipal commissioners have been instructed to closely monitor these works and conduct timely reviews.

The BMC has been paying special attention to developing gardens and dispensaries which will come up on their own plots. A civic official said, "As the DP is yet to be sanctioned, we cannot plan to implement it entirely, because there are likely to be changes. Works in the 1991 DP which were retained in this DP but not executed, were identified and taken up last year and will be this year as well."

Mehta's orders
Last year there was a delay in acquiring permissions from the building proposal department's zonal offices to carry out development work on the projects earmarked in the DP.

Municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had ordered the chief engineer of the DP department to issue instructions to the zonal Building Proposal offices to not reject projects that are on municipal plots. If at all they had to be rejected, a discussion was to be held with the authorities. It was also decided that the rejection should not be on grounds of lack of parking and open space.

"Construction on municipal plots is important and because there was a negative reply from our own department, we have a spill over of 45 DP works to start this year. However, this year the amenities to be provided to the citizens can be started at the earliest. And recently, with the civic chief's instructions to the DMCs to monitor the DP works, we are expecting that the works will be done faster," said a senior civic official from the DP department. The chief engineer of DP department, Sanjay , was unavailable for comment.

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