Mayor Gautam Deb on Tuesday tabled a budget of Rs 608 crore with a deficit of Rs 10.53 crore for the 2024-2025 fiscal at the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC).
In the budget that was tabled ahead of the Parliament elections, Deb has given impetus to development projects which will come up in the Siliguri civic area. The city is in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency which the BJP won three times since 2009.
“A slew of major infrastructure projects have been taken up in the city. They include a mega drinking water project, sewerage treatment plants on the bank of the Mahananda river, the plan to revamp the Kanchenjungha Stadium, conversion of overhead power cable network into an underground network and bio-mining. We have received funds and some of the projects have already been initiated,” said Deb.
The mayor, when asked about the deficit in the budget, said they would fill it up by augmenting their revenue.
He said the civic board would carry out the drinking water project worth around Rs 600 crores, for which Rs 204 crore would be spent in the first phase.
“A detailed project report for a sewerage treatment plant on the right bank of Mahananda has been prepared. It is a Rs 225 crore project and will be implemented jointly by the SMC and the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. Another Rs 218 crore would be spent on the underground power cable network with the assistance of the World Bank,” Deb said.
The mayor said the civic body had decided to provide more powers to all five borough (cluster of wards) offices and Rs 8.65 crore was allocated for those offices for immediate maintenance works.
He said the SMC would host the Siliguri Carnival (a cultural extravaganza) this year.
“For better traffic management, a new bus stand will be opened soon at Tinbatti More. Also, buses plying to other states and south Bengal districts from here will operate from Matigaram, which is on the northern outskirts of Siliguri,” said Deb.
Amit Jain, a BJP councillor and the leader of the Opposition at the SMC, said the budget by the Trinamul Congress-run board had not mentioned the funds which had come from the Centre.
