Déjà vu can be both fascinating and frustrating. In 1987, I wrote a cover story on the state of the then Bombay Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) services and finances. The corporation had spent 64 paise of every rupee—nearly two-thirds—on itself, leaving little for the city’s improvement after covering contingencies. The story in other cities was not dissimilar, often worse. Those in power had little inclination to invest in cities’ future.
Nearly four decades later, the sloganeering for the 2026 municipal polls revealed little has changed. Today’s BMC—in which Bombay has been replaced by Brihanmumbai—is the richest municipal corporation in India. Its budget of Rs 74,427 crore is twice that of Goa, and larger than that of nine states. The pie chart on how much is spent on what shows the spending on salaries and administration is lower, but the quality of spending seems worse. The city is filthier, potholes define the contours of the roads, the curse of water shortage is visible every dawn and dusk as tankers careen down streets blaring power horns, the air quality is worse, flooding is perennial and primary health services are worse. The picture in other cities is equally bad.
This week, the BJP and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis established their dominance across urban Maharashtra, sweeping elections in every major city—Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nagpur—and ending the day with a tally of 25 out of 29 municipal corporations. The Thackeray cousins have retained relevance and survived to fight another day. The big losers are Ajit Pawar, who tied up with Sharad Pawar and fought against the BJP, and Eknath Shinde, who tied up with BJP but finds his footprint shrinking on his home turf.
The dust and decibels will settle down in the coming weeks. The mandate demands that the BJP walks the talk. Maharashtra is among the most urbanised states. Urban India is home to over 550 million and, by 2047, over 900 million Indians will be living in cities. Urbanisation is known to be a force multiplier of growth, but it requires a viable, sustainable model to operate on.
The momentum of the grand victory affords Fadnavis an opportunity to design a template for cities to drive growth. Here is a five-point agenda—essential steps that could create a Maharashtra Model for national adoption.
Authority for accountability: The elected representatives of the cities must have the freedom to propose, own and execute their ideas for development. The BMC budget, for instance, is prepared and presented by the municipal commissioner, not the elected House. For starters, why not authorise the BMC standing committee’s chief to prepare the budget? Sure, the state government can wield a veto. Three decades after the 74th amendment, the promise of self-governance is effectively hostage to the whims of state governments. Enabling authority will ensure accountability and pave the way for a directly elected mayor.
Clean up the cities: Mumbai is on the list of the 10 dirtiest cities in India. It dumps nearly 2 billion litres of sewage into the sea every day and is home to the largest garbage dump/landfill in the country. There is the issue of scale and legacy, but there is no escaping inefficiency and corruption. Why not adopt global best practices—a blend of technology and behavioural psychology from the smart cities of Songdo, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul or Shanghai? Change calls for a sustained campaign and policy to incentivise homeowners and businesses for adopting modern sanitation methods.
Tanker-mukt water and clean air: Mumbai is not as bad as Delhi. The bad news is the state’s urban air quality is getting worse—19 cities in Maharashtra consistently fail to meet the standards. This calls for more monitoring stations, last-mile e-bus connectivity and a policy with exemplary provisions for construction practices. In 2014, the BJP promised a ‘tanker-mukt’ Maharashtra. Yet, every city in the state is haunted by the tanker mafia. The combination of options range from learning membrane-based recycling from New Water Singapore and solar-powered desalination plants to efficient, scalable desalination tech from Israel, Carlsbad and Saudi Arabia.
Invest in connectivity: Ideally, cities should move towards walk-to-work facilitation. In its absence, the effort should be to cut commute time and enable last-mile connectivity. Maharashtra’s cities—especially Mumbai and Pune—face last-mile disconnects. In Mumbai, those using the metro or the airport struggle for connections. Cars drive off sweeping flyovers and into old road jams. In Pune, the metro is on an infinite crawl. Connectivity between IT parks and residential areas is poor. Commute times in Mumbai, Thane and Pune are less about distance and more about choked roads. The 2024 Budget created a Rs 1-lakh-crore fund for ‘urban challenges’. Fadnavis may want to look at it to solve his state’s last-mile problems.
Make cities liveable: Quality of life is a causal factor and a consequence of prosperity. The quality of liveability determines investment and reinvestment. The joke in Mumbai’s Bandra or Pune’s Koregaon Park is that you pay top-rupees for property and drive into a traffic jam of potholes. Property value in Mumbai is comparable to global cities, but it is ranked 158th on the Mercer Quality of Living index. The aspiration of Mumbai to be a global financial centre or Pune to be a start-up capital or Thane to be an industrial hub or Nagpur to be an aero-logistics hub calls for improved liveability—construct pavements, rid potholes, and build green zones and walking spaces.
Cities are engines of ideas and catalysts of growth. As John F Kennedy warned, we neglect cities at our peril, “for in neglecting them we neglect the nation”.
Read all columns by Shankkar Aiyar
SHANKKAR AIYAR
Author of The Gated Republic, Aadhaar: A Biometric History of India’s 12 Digit Revolution, and Accidental India
(shankkar.aiyar@gmail.com)