BMC climate budget to focus on flood mitigation, water management
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday announced its annual climate budget for the financial year 2025-26. The climate budget will focus on specific activities related to the area of environmental sustainability and climate change by taking up activities like urban greening, water resource management, and encouraging adaptation of clean energy.
According to the budget document, the civic body for its climate budget has allocated Rs 16,321 crore or 37% of the total capital expenditure (capex) from this year's annual budget. The BMC in February this year announced its annual budget of Rs 74,427 crore for 2025-26, out of which, Rs 43,162 crore or 58% was earmarked as capex.
This is the second consecutive year that BMC has come up with a climate budget. For 2024-25, BMC had allocated Rs 10,224 crore in its budget, which was 31% of last year's overall capex. Alongside this, the BMC has said that around Rs 5.62 crore from the revenue expenditure will also be used as per the climate budget.
Of this year's total climate budget, a lion's share of Rs 15,048 crore or 88% has been allocated for water resource management and mitigation of urban flooding in Mumbai. This is followed by Rs 383 crore allocated for urban greenery, Rs 322 crore for sustainable waste management, and Rs 226.94 crore for transforming existing buildings into clean energy. The budget document shows that Rs 237.48 crore will be spent by BMC for integrated mobility, while BEST will spend Rs 744.78 crore for the same.
The budget document also shows that Rs 102 crore has been allocated for air quality management, which is 0.60% of the total climate budget.
The budget document states that key highlights are on urban flooding and water resource management because this sector reflects the civic body's core objective of urban service delivery which includes water supply, sanitation, sewage, wastewater management and stormwater drainage system.
'This sector will span over six key action tracks: building flood-resilient infrastructure; promoting localised water conservation and efficiency; reducing pollution and restoring aquatic ecosystems; providing safe and affordable drinking water; ensuring access to clean, safe toilets; and mitigating disaster risks and impacts,' the budget document stated.
Furthermore, the civic body also stated that in contrast, sectors such as energy transition and grid decarbonisation fall largely outside the jurisdiction of the BMC and therefore have limited actionable scope under the current governance structure.
'However, the inclusion of the BEST Undertaking has led to a significant increase in allocations to the Energy and Buildings and Integrated Mobility sectors. Similarly, the aspired incremental approach to including other Mumbai agencies would contribute to a more holistic understanding of climate-related allocations across the six sectors,' the document stated.
The climate budget has set up long term targets that are to be achieved by 2030. According to the document, the civic body has aimed to reduce air pollution by at least 30%, urban heat island effect by 40% and increase vegetation cover by 40%. The BMC has also proposed decarbonising Mumbai by at least 50% by electrification of all the existing BEST buses and civic owned vehicles.
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