New takeaways from BMC budget 2021-22

Considering the potential risk of natural hazards like tsunami and earthquakes, the BMC has proposed to carry out 'Seismic Microzonation, Tsunami Atlas and Hazard Vulnerable Risk Assessment (HVRA) of the island city and suburban belt. A provisional fund of Rs 18.26 crores has been allotted for this project in the municipal budget 2021-22.

The objective of the HVRA will be to investigate prominent natural and man-made hazards and to identify any threat that may require a timely coordinated response to protect lives, property and reduce economic losses. HVRA will be tied to an Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning-based Decision support system (DSS).

The BMC has come up with a new hoarding policy to decongest the city's skyline. According to the existing policy, hoarding boards are erected mainly near junctions of road. However, considering the increase in hoardings at prominent junctions of the city, the civic body will be reviewing the size of the hoardings.

“The size between two hoardings will be reviewed and revised scheduled fees will also be implemented,” the BMC stated in its budget statement.

The BMC has also proposed to construct nearly 108 community toilets, to cater to the need of floating public in all the 24 municipal wards. These toilets will be constructed comprising of all advanced facilities for women women and specially-abled. Some of the toilets will be built by using BMC funds while others will be built under 'Public-PrivatePartnership'.

The civic body is also exploring options to construct a world-class shooting facility in Mumbai to facilitate training for aspiring shooters. Alongside this, a sports complex has also been proposed for construction at Chikoowadi, Borivli (west).