New Delhi: Delhi’s Finance Minister Kailash Gehlot presented a state budget of Rs 78,800 crore for the financial year 2023-24 in the assembly on Wednesday. In view of the preparations for the G20 summit, it has a special focus on transport and infrastructure. The size of the Delhi government’s budget for 2022-23 was Rs 75,800 crore and in the previous fiscal it was Rs 69,000 crore.
Gehlot was given the charge of the Finance Department after Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia resigned. He said in his budget speech, ‘If Manish Sisodia presents the budget, he will be happy, he is my brother’s brother.’ This budget is an expression of people’s aspirations and expectations. Gehlot said it is a budget dedicated to a clean, beautiful and modern Delhi, in which Rs 19,466 crore will be spent on repairing 1,400 km of road network over the next ten years. The state government has allocated Rs 2,034 crore for various infrastructure projects.
This is the ninth consecutive budget of the Aam Aadmi Party government. This time too, maximum Rs 16,575 crore has been allocated for the punishment sector in the budget. Gehlot said, ‘All possible help will be provided to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to remove three mountains of garbage in Delhi. All colonies will be connected with canals and sewage treatment plant capacity will be increased to clean Yamuna river. The budget announced financial assistance of Rs 8,241 crore to the local bodies.
Gehlot also proposed nine schemes in the budget as part of the preparations for the G20 summit. He said that the government would upgrade and beautify the road network and construct 26 new flyovers. It will also construct three double decker flyovers in collaboration with DMRC. Apart from this, 1600 e-buses will be operationalised, world class ISBTs will be constructed and Yamuna will be cleaned.
Of the 26 flyover projects, 10 are in the construction stage, while plans for 11 have been sent to UTTIPEC (Integrated Traffic and Transport (Planning and Engineering) Centre) for approval. Gehlot said that despite Delhi’s major contribution in central taxes, the Center is giving it only Rs 325 crore. He announced, “The Okhla landfill will be removed by December, 2023, the Bhalswa site by March, 2024 and the Ghazipur site by December, 2024. The Delhi government aims to remove all three mountains of waste in two years. To level the landfill Rs 850 crore will be given to MCD.
The budget also announced the launch of Mohalla bus scheme for final touchpoints. The Finance Minister said, ‘At present 7,379 buses are running in Delhi. By the end of 2023, there will be 1,900 e-buses, which will reduce carbon emissions by 1.07 lakh tonnes. “A provision of Rs 3,500 crore is being made under this scheme for the next financial year.”
