India's Richest Civic Body Is Also Its Worst Run

Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM), popularly also known as BMC, recently inaugurated a part of the Gokhale bridge in the north western suburbs. The bridge connects east and west parts of Andheri, an important commercial neighbourhood of the city.

The bridge was built at a cost of Rs 100 crore after the previous bridge dating back to 1970 had to be demolished after developing cracks. At the opening ceremony on 26 February 2024, civic officials proudly spoke of how they had built the bridge that passes over several railway tracks of the Western Railway in just 15 months.

However, it has come to light after the bridge is complete that its alignment does not match with the other connecting flyover on the western side. As a result, while commuters travelling from the east will be able to drive towards west, those travelling from the west won’t be able to use the same bridge to alight on the eastern side.

This will mean a 30-minute detour for commuters travelling from Juhu to the east, which otherwise would have taken only 15 minutes if the bridge was built in the right way.

When questioned by irked citizens, BMC officials reportedly denied any lapse on their part and instead laid the blame on the Ministry of Railways for having insisted on raising the height of the new bridge by two metres.

This is being considered as the peak moment of the India’s richest civic body’s ineptness when it comes to building key infrastructure facilities essential to keep the city maximus on the move.

Failing To Bridge The Gap

Execution of any new infrastructure project in Mumbai always leads to a tussle between the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the BMC. While BMC functions just like any other urban local self-government body, MMRDA works directly under the aegis of the Urban Development Department of the government of Maharashtra.

In recent years, despite BMC having an elaborate set-up of administration and a large corpus fund, several key infrastructure projects in its jurisdiction have been entrusted with the MMRDA.

Experts say that it is inefficiency of the BMC that makes successive governments prefer MMRDA over the former.

For instance, leave execution of large projects such as the freeway or the maintenance of eastern and western expressways, BMC has failed even in building short-length road-over-rail (ROR) and foot-over bridges (FOB) in time.

If the Gokhale bridge debacle in the suburbs was the peak of its lethargy, bridges built and those yet to be built in the core south Mumbai area should help BMC make it to the book of world records for misgovernance, if there is any.

For instance, it took four years for the civic body just to rebuild a foot-over-bridge over the Dadabhai Naoroji Road that runs between its headquarters and the city’s main railway boarding point — Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT). Back in 2019, when the pedestrian bridge collapsed owing to lack of maintenance, seven people died instantly while 30 were injured.

Same is the story with many other over-bridges that connect densely populated parts of south Mumbai.

Particularly, a major cause of irritation for the commuters has been the delay over completion of the Delisle Road ROR bridge. This bridge which connects east and west of Parel, another important commercial neighbourhood home to several corporate offices and banks, was demolished in 2019.

Come 2024, the bridge is yet to be fully opened. As a result of this, commuters have to either travel two kilometres up towards the nearest overbridge in Dadar or down towards Mahalaxmi, just to reach the other side of Parel. Not to forget the severe traffic congestion this causes in the morning and evening rush hours.

While this is the situation in the case of a half-built bridge, Bellasis ROR Bridge in the Grant Road neighbourhood and the Carnac ROR Bridge near CSMT remain closed to vehicular traffic. BMC intends to pull down these colonial era bridges soon. However, since the bridges still haven’t been demolished, there is no clarity as to when they will be rebuilt.

Not Just Inefficient, But Also Corrupt

BMC is undoubtedly the richest civic body in the country but it is also counted among Asia’s richest municipal corporations. Its annual budget for FY 2024-25 has been pegged at Rs 59,954 crore.

Considering that this is the budget for just one city, it is even bigger than the budget of small states like Goa and Sikkim.

Despite having such a large capital outlay, not only has the BMC failed in ensuring the bare minimum of quality civic infrastructure in the city, but is also wading deep in corruption.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in March last year had pointed out several irregularities in BMC's expenditure between 2019-22. The amount under CAG's scanner was reportedly to the tune of Rs 12,204 crore.

If read into detail, the report can be considered a damning verdict on everything that is wrong with the BMC. For instance, the report red flagged work orders worth Rs 215 crore which were awarded by the Roads and the Information Technology Department without inviting tenders for the same.

If this wasn’t enough for the angst of the hapless Mumbaikar, Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids and subsequent arrest of a businessman named Sujit Patkar and health official Dr Kishor Bisure revealed financial impropriety worth Rs 21 crore in the management of Covid19 care centres.

The accused, who are now out on bail, are said to have been close associates of a senior Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) leader. In connivance with the latter, they are said to have swindled money through inflated invoices while managing the temporary healthcare facilities erected in the wake of the pandemic.

Shiv Sena’s Role In the BMC

While the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Aam Aadmi Party cadres in the city have been consistently pointing out Shiv Sena’s role in the misgovernance and corruption in BMC, the latter’s allies from the INDI Alliance too are now singing the same tune.

Shiv Sena, founded by the city's very own resident Balasaheb Thackeray, has been at the helm of the civic body consistently for 25 years. Over the years, its leaders, including the former mayor of the city, are alleged to have been involved in several scams.

Zeeshan Siddique, Congress legislator from Bandra East, recently said that there was corruption even in procurement of body bags during Shiv Sena’s rule in the civic body.

“We have personally witnessed how an item which could have cost much less was bought at double and at times triple that of the market rates during the pandemic. Who was ruling the civic body as well as the state then? It was Shiv Sena,” he said.

An urban planning researcher on the condition of anonymity said, “Despite being the richest civic body, the BMC has failed in delivering even minimum basics like 24/7 water supply and cleanliness. In fact, in the case of the latter, its ranking in the Swachh Survekshan keeps slipping year by year.”

Mumbai's ranking in the recently held Swachh Survekshan 2023 slipped to 37 from 31. On the other hand, Indore Municipal Corporation, with a budget eight-times smaller than that of the BMC at Rs 7,473 crore, has managed to rank first seven times in a row.

“Bureaucrats are a reflection of the political class who form the policies. Shiv Sena’s leaders have failed to provide a concrete vision for the city. Not only has Sena failed in making India's financial capital a world class city, but its leaders also had the audacity to stall a key line of the Mumbai Metro project because of petty ego politics. The city is now crying for a change,” she added.