Participating in the budget discussion in the state Assembly on Wednesday, opposition leader Eknath Khadse called the budget an act of jugglery, and added that the only aspect in which the state has progressed in last 10 years was incurring debts, which stands at `2.53 lakh crore.
“Around 63 per cent of the income is spent on non-planned expenditure of salaries, pensions
and paying interest on debts. The claim of the budget that there would be `152 crore of revenue surplus is just pulling wool over people’s eyes,
as by next year, there would be a deficit of over `3,000 crore,” Mr Khadse said.
According to Mr Khadse, the state cannot spare more than `1,087 crore on new development projects, as there was no actual money available with the state. He also pointed out that despite the government’s claim of `70,000 crore spent on irrigation project, the farmers have to still depend on rains, as the area under irrigation has increased by only 0.1 per cent.
The opposition leader added that the situation was similar in the power sector, as even though the government is promising to make the state free of loadshedding by 2012, it has been doing nothing to improve power generation.
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Now, Navi Mumbai’s Metro coaches set to get wider
Age Correspondent
Mumbai, March 28
Metro coaches for the under-construction Navi Mumbai Metro Rail project are set to get more spacious, with authorities deciding to increase their width from 2.9 metres to 3.2 metres.
According to officials from the City Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), the increased width can accommodate more passengers and would bring the service on par with major metro systems in the world. “The decision was taken in mid-February when it was realised that the population of Navi Mumbai will have increased by the time the first line of the project is completed,” he said. Officials will also have to design new overhead equipment for the widened tracks, sources said.
The wider coaches will have a capacity of 1,500 passengers, including a seating capacity of 200, effectively increasing the load capability by around 15 per cent. Commuters can alight and board the coaches with less effort during peak hours in wider coaches. Plans are also afoot to combine the Navi Mumbai and Mumbai Metro lines over the Vashi creek after the Mumbai’s Charkop-Bandra-Mank-hurd and the satellite city’s Belapur-Nerul-Vashi lines are finished. Deliberations are alrea-dy underway between the MMRDA and Cidco.