KMC Budget: Rs 4686.79 crore to be spent, Solid Waste Mgmnt dept gets max funds

Kolkata: Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), on Friday, presented its Budget for the financial year 2023-24 where it seeks to spend Rs 4686.79 crore with the highest allocation made to the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department to fulfill its goal of clean and green city.

A total of Rs 692.14 crore has been allocated for the SWM department. Some of the upcoming projects in this department include commissioning of a 500 tonne per day (TPD) Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste processing plant on 5 acre land at Patharghata. Mayor Firhad Hakim had recently said a lot of pollution gets generated from construction debris. Further, a material recovery facility of 300 TPD at Patharghata, and another such facility of 100 TPD at Dhapa will be installed shortly.

For water supply, Rs 431.89 crore has been allocated. Focus will be on improvement of water supply in Tollygunge and Jadavpur areas for which several works have been undertaken which include a Rs 77 crore project involving construction of a 10 MGD water treatment plant on KMDA land at the junction of Garia Station Road and Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. This apart, several projects are in the construction stage along with works relating to augmentation of water supply, including substitution of ground water extraction through tubewell by surface water. Under this, the KMC is constructing several capsule booster pumping stations and reservoirs.

The Budget saw allocation of Rs 340.70 crore for road development works. The KMC has taken up projects for resurfacing of undulated city roads. Providing smooth and pothole free roads to the citizens of the KMC area remains the basic objective.

For sewerage and drainage, Rs 306.72 crore has been allocated. The focus remains on proper drainage of stormwater, especially during monsoon. A new drainage pumping station will be constructed at Hrishikesh Park for which tenders will be invited shortly. Planning has been taken up for construction of drainage pumping stations at DN Mitra Square/Northern Park, BB-I Canal, Trenching Ground and Mint Colony along with planning for augmentation of existing drainage pumping stations to mitigate water logging in the area.

The KMC will also be procuring more mechanical sewer cleaning machines to ensure complete abolition of human deployment for this purpose.

For slum development, Rs 206.94 crore has been allocated. The Mayor highlighted that KMC’s slum development department has several projects in the pipeline in terms of providing affordable housing under the Banglar Bari scheme to the “economically weaker sections” of society.

Other new projects include installing solar lighting systems and providing smoke-less ovens in slums. The KMC is also to construct at least one ladies public toilet with special facilities for women in each ward.

Apart from these departments, Rs 181.53 crore has been allocated to the health department, Rs 158.12 crore to lighting, Rs 50.05 crore to parks and squares, Rs 51.32 crore to education and Rs 26.12 crore for social welfare and poverty alleviation.

The estimated income for 2023-24 is Rs 4540.79 crore while the Budget deficit estimate stands at Rs 146 crore.