50% bus fare cut, Rs 5L loan for women: Mahayuti manifesto woos women; promises AI tool to track illegal Bangladeshis

MUMBAI: Four days before the BMC polls, CM Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday released Mahayuti's manifesto, promising women 50% concession in BEST bus fares and Rs 5 lakh interest-free loans from BMC funds for micro enterprises run by them, an AI tool to be developed by IIT-B to track down illegal Bangladeshis, and a five-year freeze on the annual 8% increase in water tariff.

According to the manifesto, the alliance will increase the number of BEST buses from current 5,000—the fleet's official count is 2,741, of which the undertaking owns 249—to 10,000.




Promising establishment of an Environment Protection Authority, Mahayuti plans to introduce a Rs 17,000-crore ‘climate action plan for a circular economy', shut all dumping grounds, commission sewage treatment plants in two years, and treat all rivers in up to six years.

The manifesto, which also vows to free Mumbai of the tanker mafia and supply water 24x7, will be audited after five years and a factsheet will be released, said Fadnavis.

Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, who was present along with Union minister Ramdas Athawale, said the alliance wants to "bring back the original Mumbaikar" who moved to far-off places like Virar and Karjat.

According to the manifesto, the AI tool to identify illegal Bangladeshis—many of whom take the West Bengal route, prepare fake documents there, and then come to Mumbai—will be introduced in a few months. AI will also be used to develop a system for flood mitigation during monsoons, it said.

Shinde said people could see the work done by the alliance in the last 3.5 years and Mahayuti now wants to speed up the city's development. He said to bring back "original Mumbaikars", govt cleared the way for granting occupation certificates to 20,000 buildings, allowing its redevelopment to now take place. "We took up slum redevelopment through govt agencies. At 17 places, including Antop Hill, Ketakipada, Govandi, Cheetah Camp, we are taking up cluster development of slums," he said.

Targeting the Thackeray cousins, Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav and MNS chief Raj, Shinde said their manifesto makes no mention of the late Balasaheb Thackeray or of Hindutva. He said his party would celebrate the Shiv Sena founder's centenary with various welfare measures.

The manifesto said all city roads above 9m wide will be concretised and footpaths will be made of standard concrete blocks. It said water transport will be given impetus, one-ticket platform will be integrated for MMR, road network expanded to decongest Western Express Highway and Eastern Express highway and allow quick east-west connectivity, and the current Metro network work undertaken will be completed by 2029 and further extended.

Mahayuti promised to demarcate hawking and non-hawking zones, issue vending certificates to hawkers and introduce community parking.

On the health front, it plans to set up a Balasaheb Thackeray Medical College and add 2,000 beds to civic hospitals' capacity.

Establishment of Global Capability Centres will be encouraged to generate jobs, a Marathi language lab will be set up, Gen Z will be provided internship programmes, and Mumbai Digital Sakhi will train women in AI and coding courses.

The manifesto highlights housing redevelopment and SRA schemes being implemented by various govt agencies. It said Mhada will carry out redevelopment of its layouts by appointing developers, and BMC conservancy workers will get ownership of flats.