As the final budget allocation for 2008-09 was Rs 2,297 crore, that represented a 16 per cent hike in the budget for the next fiscal.

A major portion of the capital expenditure — up to Rs 722 crore— has been allocated for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) projects, with PMC’s share to be Rs 186 crore.

For the first time, the civic body has proposed special budgetary allocations worth Rs 112 crore to roll out gender-specific projects, such as public toilets for women and construction of women’s shelters.

The budget has allocated Rs 221 crore to ward-level work (besides the allocation under the capital projects head), over twice the allocation in last year’s budget — Rs 109 crore. The commissioner has proposed to set aside Rs 50 crore as the corpus for a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to execute infrastructure projects and has also suggested raising more money through banks and market.

In order to strengthen the public transport, an allocation of Rs 30 crore has been proposed for the purchase of 600 new buses.

“This year, we are going to spend the maximum budget for completing those civic projects which are already 65-80 per cent completed as on date. Therefore, we did not propose many other projects and gave a wide berth to avoidable projects like swimming tanks and memorials,” said municipal commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi.

Execution of road projects under the JNNURM gets Rs 478 crore. Sinhagad Road, the old Mumbai-Pune highway, Paud Road, Warje, Alandi Road, Sangawamwadi Road and Nagar Road will be laid in concrete. The total length of the concrete roads will be about 18 km, while that of tarred roads will be 17 km. There will be 50 km of cycle tracks under this head.

The civic body has proposed to spend Rs 911 crore for the urban poor, including Rs 165 crore on slum development and slum rehabilitation under the JNNURM.