Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

For over a decade now, residents of Indira Nagar slums in Mumbai's Sewree have been waiting for a road that would not be an invitation to diseases in their homes. But that has not happened yet. With the arrival of the monsoon, the road adjoining their makeshift houses gets waterlogged making their living conditions difficult and threatening public health.  "The water and mud accumulate when it rains heavily, even taxis don't come here. People here frequently fall sick in the rains. There have been so many people who have had dengue or malaria in the past," said 42-year-old Laxmi Harijan,…

Rekha, a fruit vendor in Kandivali east, has been selling fruits in the area for over 6 years now. Parked under a large umbrella that offers shade from the sun, she awaits customers. "The heat this year has been the worst in a long time, and it is only April. It will get worse," she exclaims, adding that the recent heatwave in the city has also affected her business since customers don't come out much and her fruits get spoiled in the scorching heat during the day. Rekha is also one of the many street vendors in Mumbai who conduct…

Mumbai's civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), is responsible for the civic infrastructure and administration of the city and its suburbs. One of the richest municipal corporations in Asia, its budget is bigger than some of the smaller states in India. For 2022, the civic budget is Rs 45949.21, a 17.70% jump from the previous year. With such a large budget and population to cater to, we must be aware of how our tax money is spent and communicate our expectations to the municipal corporation. Active citizen participation is the foundation of democracy.  Read more: Understanding Mumbai’s municipal corporation Why a…

Sagir Qureshi, a hawker in Mumbai, has been selling clothes on Hill Road in Bandra for over 50 years. He does not have a shop, instead, he wheels in an assortment of t-shirts and tops on metal racks to his usual spot everyday. In a line on the footpath in front of the brick and mortar shops, he joins the other hawkers getting ready for the evening crowds. “Mai apne pitaji ke time se yaha hu. Elco Market 1965 me shuru hua tha, tab itne hawkers aur dukaan nahi the. (I’ve been here since my father’s time. The Elco Market…

With a growing population of over 12 million, Mumbai generates 2,700 - 3,000 million litres of sewage everyday. But just as water needs to be purified before it is fit for drinking, sewage needs treatment before it re-enters the water cycle. Untreated sewage is a dangerous mix of bacteria and organic matter, making it an excellent breeding ground for diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, hepatitis B, etc. Once in water, it also wreaks havoc in the environment of marine organisms, stealing from their oxygen stores, suffocating and eventually feeding on them. At present, sewage treatment in the city is divided…

On 12th February, a webinar organised by civic organisations Mumbai First and The Blue Ribbon Movement discussed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) civic budget for 2022. Questions surrounding scope and allocation highlighted the need for citizen participation in policy making. Moderated by Abhishek Thakore, co-founder of The Blue Ribbon Movement, the panel consisted of experts, journalists and grassroots workers, with years of expertise on the functions of the BMC, its historical trends and practices.  The panellists were Chaitanya Marpakwar, a journalist for The Times of India, whose work covers civic and political issues in Mumbai, Ravikant Joshi, an expert on…

On February 3rd, India's richest civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal unveiled the civic budget for the financial year 2022-23. The budget for this year is a whopping Rs 45,949.21 crore, a 17.70% jump from the previous year (Rs 39,038.83 crore). The focus of this year's allocation is on health, infrastructure and education. We've highlighted key points from the budget announcement. Big developmental projects Rs 3,200 crore for the Mumbai Coastal Road project Rs 1,300 crore for the Goregaon Mukund Rail projectNew security systems like Boom Barrier and Hand Metal Detectors to be installed at…

Every year, like clockwork, Mumbai floods after excessive rains that bring the city to a standstill, leaving behind severe damages to infrastructure, and throwing up new challenges for the city administrators to handle. This despite substantial annual budgets sanctioned for desilting storm water drains and attempts to rejuvenate rivers, including Mithi. So predictable and perennial is Mumbai’s experience with flooding, that political parties had included specific promises in their 2017 BMP poll manifestos to tackle the issue. However, five years down the line, as they face the electorate again in 2022, the ground reality is that the promises have remained…

A population census is still far away. But the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to do a dog census in Mumbai in March 2022. For a start, the BMC is doing an awareness drive towards responsible pet ownership in Mumbai by getting owners to license their pets. “As part of this campaign, BMC officials visited housing societies to create awareness and register more pet licences,” said Dr K.A. Pathan, general manager of BMC’s veterinary health department. “Since the process is entirely online and can be done over a mobile phone, our staffers would register the pets on the spot, and…

Public anger over potholes in Mumbai, especially during monsoons, saw most local political parties promise smooth and smart solutions along with other grand promises for Mumbaikars in the 2017 urban local body elections. But despite the umpteen electoral promises made by almost all political parties, most sections of the 2000 kms of roads under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) continue to be plagued by potholes, before, during and after the monsoons. Now it is time for another round of promises as the February 2022 Mumbai municipal elections nears. Which party made what promises regarding roads in their 2017 manifesto?  The…