Mumbai municipal body has become ‘private property of some’, Fadnavis says, targeting Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister spoke at the launch of 500 projects undertaken by the BMC as part of the ‘Mumbai Beautification Project’

Targeting Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which was in power in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the last two-and-a-half decades, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the civic body had become the “private property” of some individuals but their government had decided to hand it over to the people again “since it belongs to them”.

He said that earlier, “by disqualifying contractors of national and international levels”, local contractors were given road contracts worth crores.

“Such things won’t happen now. National and international level companies have participated in the tender procedure for the construction of ₹6,000 crore [worth of] concrete roads in the city,” Mr. Fadnavis said, while speaking at the launch of 500 projects undertaken by the BMC as part of the ‘Mumbai Beautification Project’.

He also said that in order to prevent irregularities, the construction of concrete roads in the city will be monitored via a satellite.

“Our government neither wants to make the Mumbai civic body our property nor we are interested in making any property out of it. The BMC was a public property, which had gone into the hands of some people and had become a private property for them,” Mr. Fadnavis said.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said that Mumbai will become pothole-free in the next two-and-a-half years.