NMC Budget focuses on making Nagpur a greener, clean city

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Nagpur: The budget of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) for 2023-24, amounting to Rs 3,336.84 crore, is a historic one with the administration projecting the highest ever revenue figures. The budget prioritizes making Nagpur clean, green, urbanized and systematized.

NMC Administrator Radhakrishnan B has made history by inviting and accommodating most of the 97 suggestions received from citizens related to roads, gardens, stormwater lines, sewage lines, etc. The budget includes proposals for developing the city’s first urban park in Gorewada, which will have 40,000 trees. The plan also includes dotting road dividers with saplings, an Ayurvedic Park in East Nagpur, and a nursery at Lodhi Garden in West Nagpur. Additionally, the budget proposes introducing mechanized sweeping and cleaning of sewage lines with zero human intervention.

Radhakrishnan has also earmarked Rs 1 crore for developing animal shelters for stray dogs, and funds for developing the city’s first pet park. The budget will make NMC’s Fire Department more capable and the first in the state to have the tallest hydraulic ladder (72 meters). An allocation of Rs 6 crore has been made for this purpose. Currently, the tallest building in the city is 70 meters, while an upcoming project will be the first tower in the city with a height of 100 meters.

The budget includes Rs 20.50 crore allocation for saplings on road dividers and a Rs 10.12 crore allocation for more traffic islands and new gardens. With a complete ban on the immersion of idols in the city’s water bodies, the NMC has proposed four artificial tanks, one each in four Assembly constituencies, at a cost of Rs 4.75 crore.

The NMC will also add 144 air-conditioned electric buses to its Aapli Bus fleet to help reduce air pollution caused by city transport services. The State Government has agreed to provide funds for procuring an additional 250 electric buses.

In the next financial year, the NMC will focus on renovating internal roads with an allocation of Rs 40 crore for this purpose. Additionally, the NMC plans to convert another 40km of tar roads into cement ones by implementing phase 4, 5, and 6, with an allocation of Rs 100 crore each from the NMC, Nagpur Improvement Trust, and State Government.

Finally, the budget aims to cut down response time to choked sewage complaints with the strengthening of the public health engineering department by procuring more mechanized vehicles, including suction-cum-jetting machines.