KOCHI: The annual budget of the Kochi Corporation for the year 2012-13 will be presented by Deputy Mayor B Bhadra at the Council Hall at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday. This year, the civic representatives are expected to come up with a people-friendly budget that will meet some long-pending requirements of the city. “We are trying to come up with more people-friendly projects that will give thrust to the basic infrastructure facilities as well as the health sector of the city,” said a top Corporation official.Last year, the budget had projected a revenue of `864.6 crore and an expenditure of Rs 841.23 crore. However, some of the key proposals announced in last year’s budget are yet to be completed and some others still remain as non-starters.e-GovernanceThough the completion of the e-Governance project under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was given top priority in last year’s budget, the project is yet to be completed. The project mainly aims at bringing the major services, including utility management, property tax, registration of births and deaths, water supply and other utilities, grievances and suggestions and building approvals online. GIS ProjectLast year’s budget had also made provisions for re-tendering the Geographic Information System (GIS) project which will help collect the details of every household in the city online. The project is at a standstill now and is expected to find a place in this year’s budget also.Road DevelopmentAmong the road projects included in the last budget, the completion of the widening of Thammanam-Pulleppady Road, the work of the SA Road west extension, Edakochi Indira Gandi Road, Palluruthy 40-foot Road and North-South Railway Station Link Road are yet to be completed. The work of the Goshree-Mamangalam Road and Vathuruthy Railway Overbridge (RoB) projects are other non-starters. Meanwhile, this year’s Corporation budget is expected to give more importance to projects that can be implemented on a public-private partnership mode. However, Opposition leader of the Corporation Council K J Jacob said the civic body should come up with a budget that addressed the basic amenities of the city. “We expected the same last year. But nothing was done and the civic body came up with some ambitious projects like ‘Kochi First’ that are not feasible for the city rather than framing some people-friendly projects. This year we hope that the Corporation will rectify its mistakes and come up with a budget that will fit the revenue framework of the civic body,” Jacob said.
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