mumbai

Updated: Mar 09, 2018 01:17 IST

Justifying the reason behind tapping into its reserves for the first time this year, municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta said that there was an urgent need to use these funds to boost city’s infra projects. Major projects like the coastal road, which was said to begin in April, will take off by May or June, he said.

Owing to the decrease in its revenue, the BMC had announced that it will draw funds from its deposits of around Rs 70, 000 crore to make up for the deficit. Speaking at an event organised by Observer Research Foundation, Mehta pressed upon the need for upgrading the schools, sewerage plants, civic hospitals and to focus on the capital expenditure. After its announcement to open crematoriums and clinics for pets, the BMC has received an overwhelming response from corporate firms who are willing to fund procurement of modern technologies in these clinics for pets, he confirmed.

Expressing his concerns over the sad state of civic schools, Mehta said, “Education is the poor man’s passport to a different life. There is an urgent to improve the quality of education we give in our schools. Every year, we are spending Rs2,800 crore on schools, however, schools are shutting down.”

The budget of the upgrading the civic hospitals has significantly increased this year. The BMC has decided to increase the bed strength of four of its hospitals in the suburbs. The civic chief said that the civic hospitals has a capacity to handle around 70,000 patients each year, however, they end up treating over 1.40 crore patients every year. He said, “The bed strength of hospitals in the suburbs have been increased in order to reduce the load on hospitals in the city. The hike in charges for medical services is because to continue providing better services since the expenditure and the revenue from hospitals has a huge difference.”