Mumbai vs Delhi: Which is better city?

MUMBAI: The country's financial capital gets step-motherly treatment compared to Delhi, said chief minister Prithviraj Chavan during his visit to TOI's headquarters in Mumbai on Tuesday, promising to seek Rs 1 lakh crore from the Centre to develop the city's infrastructure.

Though Mumbai is evidently in greater need, Delhi since 2005 has received 34% more funds under the Centre's flagship urban development programme. For projects from roads and flyovers to sewage and heritage conservation, Delhi received Rs 1,821 crore more that Mumbai under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

"We need to have a window for megacities and some of Mumbai's major projects need to be elevated to national status," Chavan said, mentioning the Coastal Road Freeway, Mumbai Metro & Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link, Navi Mumbai Airport, Virar-Alibaug Corridor and Interstate River Linking Project.

He said the Centre should invest in the freeway, given that most other metros, including Delhi, boast of ring roads. Also, he said, the Centre needed to think about what it intended to do with the vast amount of land it occupied in Mumbai.

Chavan said Delhi had an unfair advantage: much of its roads and flyovers are an outcome of events like the Commonwealth Games. Experts believe Delhi's political positioning makes it the favoured choice for international events and also attracts central investment. Senior bureaucrats say funding is a politically sensitive issue and Delhi clearly wins in lobbying.

But some experts say a funding comparison with Delhi does not hold. Santosh Mehrotra, director general of the Planning Commission's Institute of Applied Manpower Research, said parallels are unfair to draw as Delhi enjoys the status of a state. "If you compare the condition of Mumbai with Delhi's infrastructure, the former certainly is in greater need (of funds). But it is worth questioning why in our decentralized setup does the Maharashtra government not plough back the revenues it generates into the financial capital or what prevents the BMC from generating more revenue through taxing local sources."

Senior economist Abhay Pethe, who works closely with the state government, said much of Mumbai's problem lies in underutilization of funds. "In the last five years, we have not been able to spend the entire amount of JNNURM funds allocated to us. Delhi in contrast is more efficient with spending funds."

Officials at the Union Urban Development Ministry estimate that Mumbai has spent 95% of central funds compared to Delhi's 115% (percentage includes local body funding).

Some experts said Mumbaikars, fed up with their daily grind, had become immune to a gross lack of facilities and no longer engaged with their city's governance mechanisms. Delhiites in contrast were more politically motivated, translating into more effective governance despite the presence of many more governance agencies.