Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Saturday said that Mumbai will have 3,400 electric buses by December 2023.

Addressing a press conference after the BMC budget presentation, Chahal said, “By December 2023, Mumbai will have 3,400 electric buses. Mumbai will be the first city in India to have E public buses in huge number.”

The BMC has allotted Rs 800 crore to BEST for the financial year 2023-24. Chahal, in the BMC Budget 2023 speech, said that during the year 2022-23, a total amount of Rs 1382.28 crore is given as an advance to BEST Undertaking subject to the state government’s decision to treat this amount as a loan to BEST Undertaking.

“Furthermore, considering the importance of public transportation, a provision of Rs 800 crore is proposed in the Budget Estimate 2023-24 for assisting Undertaking, to support their functioning. I hope BEST will reach a better financial position soon by improving on various parameters and also by structural reforms and reduced dependency on assistance from BMC in near future,” he said.

Also Read: BMC Budget 2023: From infrastructure to pollution control measures, here are some key highlights

In a push for public transport and clean energy, the BMC Budget 2023 had a special mention on `Sustainable and Clean Transport Measures`. The budget document said: “Due to enormous increase in vehicle usage, on-road transportation remains a major contributor to air pollution. Thus, the city should focus on transport demand management to disincentivize private transport and shift the demand from low-occupancy private vehicles to high-occupancy shared vehicles, from fossil fuel-based vehicles to clean transport modes.”

For this BMC will adopt the following measures, to reduce on-road air pollution: 

1. Electrification of BMC vehicles and provision of charging infrastructure
2. 3000 electric BEST buses are being procured
3. Conversion of old BMC diesel/petrol vehicles into CNG vehicles

The BMC, the richest civic body in the country, on Saturday presented a Rs 52,619.07 crore budget for the year 2023-24, with the budgetary estimates crossing the Rs 50,000 crore-mark for the first time.

The BMC administration presented the budget to municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, who was appointed as the civic body`s administrator by the state government in March last year after the five-year term of corporators ended.

“The budget estimates for the financial year 2023-24 are proposed at Rs 52,619.07 crore, which exceeds the budget estimates of 2022-23, that is Rs 45,949.21 crore, by 14.52 per cent,” the budget document said.

The budgetary estimates this time are 14.52 per cent more than the 2022-23 amount of Rs 45,949 crore.

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