BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, speaking at a '1 Trillion Economy Maharashtra' event, emphasised Mumbai's critical role in India's economy and the necessity for continuous improvement across policy, infrastructure, service delivery, ease of doing business, and liveability to achieve this goal. She identified construction and real estate, financial and tech services, and entertainment and media as current key growth drivers, while also stressing the need to explore new avenues and for government and municipal interventions to enhance infrastructure and liveability

BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, speaking at a '1 Trillion Economy Maharashtra' event, emphasised Mumbai's critical role in India's economy and the necessity for continuous improvement across policy, infrastructure, service delivery, ease of doing business, and liveability to achieve this goal. She identified construction and real estate, financial and tech services, and entertainment and media as current key growth drivers, while also stressing the need to explore new avenues and for government and municipal interventions to enhance infrastructure and liveability

BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide, speaking at a '1 Trillion Economy Maharashtra' event, emphasised Mumbai's critical role in India's economy and the necessity for continuous improvement across policy, infrastructure, service delivery, ease of doing business, and liveability to achieve this goal. She identified construction and real estate, financial and tech services, and entertainment and media as current key growth drivers, while also stressing the need to explore new avenues and for government and municipal interventions to enhance infrastructure and liveability

Mumbai has always played a major role in contributing not only to Maharashtra's economy but also to India's economy, said Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Ashwini Bhide. Speaking at the '1 Trillion Economy Maharashtra' event organised by THE WEEK in Mumbai, she added that Mumbai will have to continuously keep improving in every sector, right from its policy changes to its infrastructure, its service delivery, its ease of doing business, and its liveability.

Bhide said that there is always work in progress in a vibrant city like Mumbai. New challenges come up and have to be dealt with. “There are three to four major growth drivers for a greater Mumbai: the construction and real estate industry, which contributes substantially to Mumbai's economy; the financial and tech services segment; and the entertainment and media industry. These remain the main pillars of growth for Mumbai.

“But going forward, we need not only build upon them but also look for other areas. The government and institutions like the municipal corporation have to contribute through policy interventions and improving the liveability in the city by providing better infrastructure,” said Bhide.

She said that BMC’s aim is to provide better infrastructure, better quality of services, and more citizen-centric services to its citizens. She added that the BMC is contributing by building a major section of the coastal road in the city. “We are also working on how to mitigate flood risks with the Union government. A huge project is already prepared, which will improve the way we fight floods.”

Bhide said she had been involved in several infrastructure projects in Mumbai for the past 20 years and has witnessed multiple layers of challenges that the city faces while undertaking any infrastructure project. “It's a land-starved city. Plus, there are multiple claimants to that land. One has to navigate through and build new infrastructure. It is challenging because there is no greenfield development; everything is brownfield, and we have to deal with whatever there is on the ground or underground. Besides that, there are multiple legal challenges, land acquisition challenges, rehabilitation challenges, and challenges pertaining to multiple utilities that are on Mumbai's roads and beneath the roads. There are also multiple regular regulatory challenges; because this is a coastal city, there are coastal regulatory zone restrictions.”

She also added that there are many projects which have a long gestation period and the construction goes on for 5-7 years, and one has to work in close neighbourhoods. “One has not only to ensure the safety of the people but also their expectations and aspirations because people don't want noise at night. We have to take care of the dust. At the same time, we had to lay strong protocols which now all other agencies are following.”

Bhide said that she would like to be known as someone who was instrumental in bringing more technology and more AI-enabled features into the government system so that the citizens are served much better in the future.

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