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Delhi

NDMC focus on pending plans

With the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) yet to complete several of its ambitious projects, there were hardly any new announcements on Monday in the civic agency’s budget that focuses more on wrapping up pending works.

The Rs 2021-crore budget also spared the VVIPs areas of the capital a hike in property tax.

It announced the completion of some of its work, listed out new expected deadlines for a number of pending projects, including April for Connaught Place redevelopment, and also focused on a rehaul of old water pipelines and deep well hand pumps and upgradation of municipal markets.

According to budget estimates, the NDMC hopes to earn a revenue of Rs 2,356.91 crore in the year 2013-14 while its revenue expenditure is put at Rs 2,021.57 crore for the year.

‘Improving the quality of civic services and generation of revenue are some of the challenges before us,’ said NDMC chairperson Archna Arora in her address. The Connaught Place redevelopment project that started much before the Commonwealth Games is finally expected to end by March-April this year, according to a new estimate by the NDMC.

Chairperson Archna Arora even set a new deadline for completion of Connaught Place Redevelopment Project, which was due to complete before the commonwealth games.

‘The  Connaught Place Redevelopment Project will be completed by May 2013 and after that we  will decide if any inquiry is required against the concessionaire for delay,’ said Arora.

Interestingly, in the written budget speech, the deadline for completion of the project has been mentioned as March 2013. When asked about the new deadline, she reiterated the new deadline is May. The project which was to be completed before Commonwealth Games in 2010 has already missed seven deadlines.

‘Earlier our project costs were Rs 674 crore but over time some plans were changed and now the budget stands at Rs 400 crore. Till now Rs 296 crore has been spent,’ Arora told reporters later, while expressing confidence that the project will finally be complete in another few months.

Also on the agenda of the NDMC this year is the completing of several road and parking projects. The NDMC has also proposed to take up 34 roads for resurfacing with micro surfacing treatment as per road-wise suitability as recommended by CRRI.

Presenting the budget before the Council, Arora said the work on laying concrete roads in Lodhi Colony, Sarojini Nagar and Bharti Nagar is expected to be complete this financial year while.  ‘A provision of Rs 110 crore has been kept for roads and pavements in the year 2013-14, out of which Rs 50.37 crore are for capital expenditure,’ Arora said.

The work of re-surfacing at Ashoka Road, Feroze Shah Road, Khan Market, Jor Bagh among other areas is also expected to be completed this year. Of the 35 public toilets, the agency could complete only 17 and the remaining 22 are expected to be complete this year.

‘The revenue receipts have, therefore, crossed the Rs 2000 crore mark in the 2012-13 and are likely to cross Rs 2300 mark in 2013-14. There is an increase in the Revenue expenditure as well. However, the growth in revenue receipt from 2012-13 to 1013-14 in 20.6 per cent, higher than the growth of 20.2 per cent in the revenue expenditure in the same period. The capital expenditure is projected at Rs 351.55 crore in 2012-13 and Rs 394.66 crore in 2013-14,’ she said.

The agency which has completed two multi-level parkings at Sarojini Nagar and Baba Kharag Singh Marg will focus this year on a parking project in Kasturba Gandhi Marg and Khan Market, both of which are stuck due to either clearances or operational issues.

The NDMC will this year prepare a roadmap to execute the plan for the NMX area to be developed as a ‘Solar City’. On the electricity front, out of the ten 11 KV sub stations announced last year, six are expected to be commissioned this year, while another four are in the pipeline.

To deal with scarcity of water, installation of deep well hand pumps has been taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 1.45 crore and is expected to be completed by July this year, the budget says.

Answering questions, Arora told reporters that around Rs 5 crore are due in arrears in electricity and water taxes in MPs areas and the pending amounts are being deducted by the government from their salaries.
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