The Era of Announcements Is Over. The Era of Delivery Has Begun in Mumbai.
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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, though considered the financial capital of the country, gradually lost its shine to corruption and a lack of political will. Again, the citizens had to bear the cost of stalled projects and poor civic delivery.
However, a phase came when Mumbai began to regain its rhythm. A total makeover of metro lines, long-delayed infrastructure projects, slum redevelopment initiatives and curbs on demographic distortions caused by illegal immigration began taking shape, while transparent governance started reflecting accountability over politics. It was a period defined by clear vision and decisive leadership that restored faith in the city’s institutions.
How BMC became a symbol of decline
Before Mumbai began regaining its civic rhythm, BMC had sunk into inefficiency and institutional decay. Years of administrative drift, corruption and poor oversight turned the city’s wealthiest civic body into a cautionary example of how systems collapse when accountability fades.
Audits during the early 2010s exposed shocking lapses in quality control. One such report in 2013 revealed that a “major structural repair” of a key public bridge had involved little more than superficial plastering worth ₹8 lakh. The project file, however, showed inflated costs and claims of structural reinforcement. This was a stark example of how financial collusion had replaced technical scrutiny.
This was not an isolated case. The 2016 - 17 road scam revealed a pattern. Contractors such as RPS Infrastructure and Mahavir Infrastructure continued receiving projects despite blacklisting for substandard work.
This rot extended to long-term projects. The Navi Mumbai Metro, inaugurated in 2011 and slated for completion by 2014, was delayed nearly a decade due to bureaucratic paralysis. Similarly, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority had, by 2014, completed barely a quarter of its approved housing units, leaving over a thousand projects stuck in limbo. Apart from this, megaprojects such as the Coastal Road and Trans Harbour Link were also endlessly delayed. The damage was visible everywhere: in broken infrastructure, eroded civic confidence and a system that had forgotten its own purpose.
Demography, migration and civic strain: Illegal cross-border migration and Mumbai As Mumbai grew into a magnet for labour and livelihood, its population also absorbed a large number of illegal migrants, a phenomenon that, over time, reshaped both the city’s demography and its civic burden. The 2020 study “Illegal Immigrants to Mumbai: Analysing Socio-economic and Political Consequences” by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences brought empirical clarity to a long-suspected trend. The report identified pockets such as Govandi, Mankhurd, Kurla, Dongri, and parts of Dharavi as hotspots where Bangladeshi immigrants had settled over the years, often under precarious living conditions.
Citing the report, Shouvik Mondal, assistant professor at TISS, pointed to the Census data showing the Hindu population in Mumbai dropping from 88 per cent in 1965 to 66 per cent in 2011, during which the Muslim population rose from eight per cent to 21 per cent. It is estimated that by 2051, the Muslim population could reach 30 per cent, with the Hindu population potentially dipping to 50 per cent. "Illegal cross-border migration is reshaping Mumbai's social and political landscape by putting pressure on local resources and altering the voter dynamics," Mondal said.
According to the study, these settlements, while small in spatial spread, exerted a disproportionate strain on urban resources — from basic sanitation and water supply to housing and healthcare. Localised population surges complicated waste management, increased pressure on municipal schools and hospitals, and contributed to the expansion of informal housing clusters. TISS researchers also noted how such demographic changes sometimes altered local voting patterns, creating incentives for political patronage and informal protection networks that weakened civic enforcement.
A new chapter begins for Mumbaikars
As Mumbai faced years of civic stagnation, the state initiated a quiet but decisive course correction between 2014 and 2019. This emphasised administrative efficiency, technological reform, and coordinated oversight to revive long-delayed urban projects.
Infrastructure and Urban Renewal
Between 2014 and 2019, Mumbai witnessed renewed dynamism in its infrastructure ecosystem.
Urban Housing and Slum Redevelopment
The housing and slum redevelopment sector, which had long symbolised Mumbai’s civic paralysis, also saw measurable revival.
The government bridged the administrative gap that had previously slowed urban renewal by aligning local rehabilitation efforts with national housing missions. The combined impact of executive oversight, digital transparency, and infrastructure revival began re-establishing civic confidence.
The Slowdown
Between 2019 and 2022, Mumbai’s civic governance suffered a sharp regression marked by weakened coordination, financial mismanagement, and declining transparency in Mumbai.
A Special Audit by the Accountant General uncovered severe lapses in 76 BMC projects worth ₹12,000 crore. This exposed poor planning, non-transparent spending, and violation of audit norms. The administration notably refused to disclose details of ₹3,538 crore spent on COVID-19 management, citing emergency laws to block scrutiny. A move, the CAG said, eroded probity and accountability.
Financial irregularities became systemic: projects worth hundreds of crores were awarded without tenders, contracts were executed without agreements, and mandatory third-party quality audits were skipped on major works. The rollback of e-tendering reforms signalled a return to opaque governance.
As corruption allegations mounted, including land and IT-related scams exceeding ₹400 crore, infrastructure progress slowed dramatically. What had been a phase of urban momentum slipped back into administrative drift and institutional opacity.
Revival under the Mahayuti Government
The formation of the Mahayuti government in 2022 restored the “triple-engine” coordination between the Centre, State, and local bodies. This brought back the renewed momentum to Mumbai’s stalled infrastructure and civic governance.
The government emphasised large-scale investment, with ₹7 lakh crore infused into Mumbai’s infrastructure, signalling renewed political and administrative focus.
Strengthening Governance and Accountability
Fadnavis’s Response to Demographic Imbalance: Recognising that effective urban governance relies on demographic stability and legal accountability, the Maharashtra government under Devendra Fadnavis launched a coordinated verification drive involving the Home Department, BMC, and Mumbai Police. The initiative focused on detecting forged identity documents, curbing illegal tenancies, and verifying employment records, while tightening scrutiny in slum redevelopment and welfare beneficiary lists.
This renewed vigilance produced tangible results. In 2024, 152 Bangladeshi nationals were deported from Mumbai. The momentum intensified through 2025. By mid-March, police had arrested 430 illegal immigrants, including 160 detained within the first three weeks of January alone. Between January 2024 and August 2025, authorities deported over 700 illegal Bangladeshi nationals from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, marking one of the most assertive enforcement phases in recent years.
As these law-and-order reforms took root, Mumbai’s broader transformation gathered momentum. The city, India’s financial capital, stands at the core of the nation’s aspiration to become a developed country by 2047. Guided by the Viksit Maharashtra 2047 roadmap, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is evolving into a global hub where every major destination is reachable within an hour through an integrated network. This physical renewal is complemented by next-generation digital governance designed to eliminate discretion, accelerate approvals, and strengthen transparency in civic systems.
This makeover underscores a critical governance insight: sustainable progress depends on coordinated executive leadership. How alignment between the Centre, State, and local bodies fosters transparency and rapid project delivery. The road ahead lies in deepening these reforms to build a Mumbai that truly reflects the spirit of Viksit Bharat 2047.
However, a phase came when Mumbai began to regain its rhythm. A total makeover of metro lines, long-delayed infrastructure projects, slum redevelopment initiatives and curbs on demographic distortions caused by illegal immigration began taking shape, while transparent governance started reflecting accountability over politics. It was a period defined by clear vision and decisive leadership that restored faith in the city’s institutions.
How BMC became a symbol of decline
Before Mumbai began regaining its civic rhythm, BMC had sunk into inefficiency and institutional decay. Years of administrative drift, corruption and poor oversight turned the city’s wealthiest civic body into a cautionary example of how systems collapse when accountability fades.
Audits during the early 2010s exposed shocking lapses in quality control. One such report in 2013 revealed that a “major structural repair” of a key public bridge had involved little more than superficial plastering worth ₹8 lakh. The project file, however, showed inflated costs and claims of structural reinforcement. This was a stark example of how financial collusion had replaced technical scrutiny.
This was not an isolated case. The 2016 - 17 road scam revealed a pattern. Contractors such as RPS Infrastructure and Mahavir Infrastructure continued receiving projects despite blacklisting for substandard work.
This rot extended to long-term projects. The Navi Mumbai Metro, inaugurated in 2011 and slated for completion by 2014, was delayed nearly a decade due to bureaucratic paralysis. Similarly, the Slum Rehabilitation Authority had, by 2014, completed barely a quarter of its approved housing units, leaving over a thousand projects stuck in limbo. Apart from this, megaprojects such as the Coastal Road and Trans Harbour Link were also endlessly delayed. The damage was visible everywhere: in broken infrastructure, eroded civic confidence and a system that had forgotten its own purpose.
Demography, migration and civic strain: Illegal cross-border migration and Mumbai As Mumbai grew into a magnet for labour and livelihood, its population also absorbed a large number of illegal migrants, a phenomenon that, over time, reshaped both the city’s demography and its civic burden. The 2020 study “Illegal Immigrants to Mumbai: Analysing Socio-economic and Political Consequences” by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences brought empirical clarity to a long-suspected trend. The report identified pockets such as Govandi, Mankhurd, Kurla, Dongri, and parts of Dharavi as hotspots where Bangladeshi immigrants had settled over the years, often under precarious living conditions.
Citing the report, Shouvik Mondal, assistant professor at TISS, pointed to the Census data showing the Hindu population in Mumbai dropping from 88 per cent in 1965 to 66 per cent in 2011, during which the Muslim population rose from eight per cent to 21 per cent. It is estimated that by 2051, the Muslim population could reach 30 per cent, with the Hindu population potentially dipping to 50 per cent. "Illegal cross-border migration is reshaping Mumbai's social and political landscape by putting pressure on local resources and altering the voter dynamics," Mondal said.
According to the study, these settlements, while small in spatial spread, exerted a disproportionate strain on urban resources — from basic sanitation and water supply to housing and healthcare. Localised population surges complicated waste management, increased pressure on municipal schools and hospitals, and contributed to the expansion of informal housing clusters. TISS researchers also noted how such demographic changes sometimes altered local voting patterns, creating incentives for political patronage and informal protection networks that weakened civic enforcement.
A new chapter begins for Mumbaikars
As Mumbai faced years of civic stagnation, the state initiated a quiet but decisive course correction between 2014 and 2019. This emphasised administrative efficiency, technological reform, and coordinated oversight to revive long-delayed urban projects.
- Strategic executive centralisation: Recognising that institutional inertia within the BMC had crippled progress, the state government adopted a top-down approach to reclaim control over Mumbai’s major development agenda.
- Empowering the MMRDA: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, chaired by the Chief Minister, became the principal execution arm for critical infrastructure that had remained stagnant for years. Projects such as Metro Lines 2A, 2B, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, along with the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), were fast-tracked under this model of central coordination.
- Unified Infrastructure Policy (2016): Introduced to synchronise multiple agencies including BMC, MMRDA, MSRDC, and the Urban Development Department, this framework replaced fragmented decision-making with unified planning. This ensured that there would no longer be a stall in large-scale civic projects.
- Smart City Mission Integration: By leveraging the Smart City SPV model, the state created an administrative bridge across Mumbai and Thane, facilitating data-driven governance for traffic, waste and civic services.
- Direct Oversight of Utilities: Projects such as the Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project (MSDP-II) were revived through state intervention, ensuring that water and sanitation systems could align with broader urban renewal goals.
- Digital Transparency and Governance Transformation: A defining feature of this renewal phase was the institutionalisation of transparency through digital governance.
- E-Tendering and Procurement Reforms: Mandatory e-tendering for all municipal contracts above ₹3 lakh eliminated opacity in contractor selection, targeting the long-standing contractor-politician nexus.
- Aaple Sarkar Portal (2015): Enabled citizens to register grievances and track responses online — forcing municipal departments to create traceable accountability chains.
- GIS-Based Property Mapping: Digital property records exposed thousands of unregistered assets, substantially widening BMC’s revenue base and reducing under-reporting.
- Online Building Permission System: Automated building approval workflows reduced delays and human interference, a first in civic-level urban regulation.
- Command & Control Integration: The CM’s War Room, launched in 2015, began real-time monitoring of projects like drainage upgrades, road works, and flood mitigation, leveraging satellite imagery and drone data for accurate tracking.
Infrastructure and Urban Renewal
Between 2014 and 2019, Mumbai witnessed renewed dynamism in its infrastructure ecosystem.
- Metro Expansion: Multiple lines across the city were approved and operationalised, connecting previously unlinked corridors and easing commuter congestion.
- Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL): A landmark project was revived after decades of delay, positioned as the backbone of regional connectivity. Foundation stone was laid by PM Narendra Modi in 2016.
- Coastal Road Progress: The project entered its decisive construction phase, aided by prompt executive decisions on land acquisition and planning modifications under DP 2034.
- Integrated Mobility Vision: Seamless multimodal connectivity linking the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) with metro, sea link, and road networks was envisioned as the cornerstone of “Gateway Mumbai.”
Urban Housing and Slum Redevelopment
The housing and slum redevelopment sector, which had long symbolised Mumbai’s civic paralysis, also saw measurable revival.
- Revival of Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) Projects: Stalled projects were digitally tracked and cleared under new transparency mandates, unlocking thousands of housing units.
- Dharavi Redevelopment: Re-initiated in 2018, the project incorporated 45 acres of railway land through a state-brokered MoU with Indian Railways in 2019 — signalling serious institutional commitment.
- PMAY-Urban Integration: The launch of the PMAY-U mobile app (2019) allowed beneficiaries to track subsidy status directly, ensuring efficient fund transfer and citizen participation.
The government bridged the administrative gap that had previously slowed urban renewal by aligning local rehabilitation efforts with national housing missions. The combined impact of executive oversight, digital transparency, and infrastructure revival began re-establishing civic confidence.
The Slowdown
Between 2019 and 2022, Mumbai’s civic governance suffered a sharp regression marked by weakened coordination, financial mismanagement, and declining transparency in Mumbai.
A Special Audit by the Accountant General uncovered severe lapses in 76 BMC projects worth ₹12,000 crore. This exposed poor planning, non-transparent spending, and violation of audit norms. The administration notably refused to disclose details of ₹3,538 crore spent on COVID-19 management, citing emergency laws to block scrutiny. A move, the CAG said, eroded probity and accountability.
Financial irregularities became systemic: projects worth hundreds of crores were awarded without tenders, contracts were executed without agreements, and mandatory third-party quality audits were skipped on major works. The rollback of e-tendering reforms signalled a return to opaque governance.
As corruption allegations mounted, including land and IT-related scams exceeding ₹400 crore, infrastructure progress slowed dramatically. What had been a phase of urban momentum slipped back into administrative drift and institutional opacity.
Revival under the Mahayuti Government
The formation of the Mahayuti government in 2022 restored the “triple-engine” coordination between the Centre, State, and local bodies. This brought back the renewed momentum to Mumbai’s stalled infrastructure and civic governance.
- Major Infrastructure Projects on track: Several long-delayed projects finally began to take shape after 2022.
- Mumbai Metro Lines 2A and 7, launched in phases between 2022 and 2024, carried over 200 million passengers within three years, with daily ridership crossing 3 lakh.
- The Aqua Line (Metro 3), Mumbai’s first fully underground corridor spanning 33.5 km from Aarey to Cuffe Parade, was finally opened—despite earlier opposition from political quarters. Its completion marks a major step toward decongesting South Mumbai and improving urban mobility.
- The long-pending Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), stalled for nearly two decades, was finally awarded to Adani Properties in 2023 after four failed tenders.
The government emphasised large-scale investment, with ₹7 lakh crore infused into Mumbai’s infrastructure, signalling renewed political and administrative focus.
Strengthening Governance and Accountability
- The new administration focused on enhancing financial discipline and transparency.
- Procurement systems were strengthened through mandatory vendor registration and expanded use of e-tendering (Mahatenders) to ensure fair and transparent bidding.
- The SRA set a target of building 5 lakh new homes by 2030 which is more than twice the output of the past 29 years.
- To hold errant builders accountable, the Maharashtra Slum Areas Act was amended to treat unpaid rent to slum dwellers as land revenue arrears, allowing attachment and sale of the builder’s assets.
- A Special Audit and SIT investigation were launched to track misuse of funds during the previous administration.
Fadnavis’s Response to Demographic Imbalance: Recognising that effective urban governance relies on demographic stability and legal accountability, the Maharashtra government under Devendra Fadnavis launched a coordinated verification drive involving the Home Department, BMC, and Mumbai Police. The initiative focused on detecting forged identity documents, curbing illegal tenancies, and verifying employment records, while tightening scrutiny in slum redevelopment and welfare beneficiary lists.
This renewed vigilance produced tangible results. In 2024, 152 Bangladeshi nationals were deported from Mumbai. The momentum intensified through 2025. By mid-March, police had arrested 430 illegal immigrants, including 160 detained within the first three weeks of January alone. Between January 2024 and August 2025, authorities deported over 700 illegal Bangladeshi nationals from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, marking one of the most assertive enforcement phases in recent years.
As these law-and-order reforms took root, Mumbai’s broader transformation gathered momentum. The city, India’s financial capital, stands at the core of the nation’s aspiration to become a developed country by 2047. Guided by the Viksit Maharashtra 2047 roadmap, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is evolving into a global hub where every major destination is reachable within an hour through an integrated network. This physical renewal is complemented by next-generation digital governance designed to eliminate discretion, accelerate approvals, and strengthen transparency in civic systems.
This makeover underscores a critical governance insight: sustainable progress depends on coordinated executive leadership. How alignment between the Centre, State, and local bodies fosters transparency and rapid project delivery. The road ahead lies in deepening these reforms to build a Mumbai that truly reflects the spirit of Viksit Bharat 2047.