CM Fadnavis launches BMC’s ‘Participate Mumbai’ platform, says it will give new direction to city's development

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday launched Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations BMC Participate Mumbairsquo a new digital platform aimed at bringing citizens businesses corporate organisations NGOs and experts together to support the citys developmentA memorandum of understanding MoU was also exchanged between the civic body and Samagra an organisation working on governance and public service delivery an official statement saidFadnavis said Participate Mumbai was not merely a platform to raise Corporate Social Responsibility CSR funds but a mechanism through which the government municipal corporation corporate sector and social organisations could work together on development projectsPlatform to connect partners with civic projectsFadnavis said the platform would list projects in areas including education healthcare water employment environment parks beautification and poverty reductionCompanies NGOs and citizens interested in contributing to a particular sector would be able to select projects according to their interestsOrganisations that already have their own plans for working in a specific area will also be able to present their proposals through the platformFadnavis said the initiative would help reduce the gap between the civic administration and the corporate and social sectors and speed up development worklsquoImpact matters more than CSR spendingrsquoFadnavis said the focus of CSR initiatives should not simply be on how much money is spent but on the number of people benefited and the impact createdHe said CSR partnerships could bring new technology modern management methods better monitoring systems and more flexible working methods to government projectsCombining government machinery with CSR partners could therefore help deliver more effective results he added lsquo lsquo rsquo 26 httpstco93uusOEKWT Dev_Fadnavis Maharashtra DevendraFadnavis ParticipateMumbaimdash CMO Maharashtra CMOMaharashtra October 6 2026Focus on malnutrition in MumbaiFadnavis said the BMC had undertaken major work in infrastructure but needed to strengthen interventions in education healthcare and nutritionHe pointed to problems such as malnutrition stunted growth and wasting among children in some parts of the city particularly in slum areas and poorer communitiesHe said CSR partnerships could be used to improve access to nutrition among children Better nutrition he added has a longterm impact on childrens brain development educational performance and immunityMoU with Samagra to streamline civic administrationThe MoU with Samagra aims to make the BMCs administration more efficient transparent and citizenfocusedFadnavis said government procedures needed to change with time pointing out that many processes continued to operate in ways that had been designed years agoHe said unnecessary stages in administrative procedures should be removed through Business Process Reengineering BPR so that citizens could receive services and solutions more quicklyThe Chief Minister said the state government had attempted to make around 1100 services available online An analysis found that around 200 of these services were not being used by citizensHe said improving the delivery of around 45 to 47 services and schemes that are widely used could help provide faster and better services to around 90 per cent of citizensThe restructuring of these processes is in its final stage and will be implemented soon Fadnavis saidAI to transform building permission processFadnavis also said the BMCs building department had introduced an artificial intelligencebased system to scrutinise building plansHe said the administration should aim to reduce human intervention in the process with the eventual goal of moving towards zero human intervention where possibleSuch a system he said could improve the ease of doing business in MumbaiThe Maharashtra CM also called for a change in the mindset within government departments saying officials should be willing to adopt new methods instead of relying on procedures simply because they had been followed for many yearsMayor calls platform a step towards greater public participationMumbai Mayor Ritu Tawde described the launch of Participate Mumbai and the MoU with Samagra as an important step in the citys administrative historyShe said the initiative would give institutional shape to public participation in Mumbais developmentTawde said CSR should not be limited to providing funds but should focus on creating measurable changeShe said the platform would connect the willingness of Mumbai residents companies organisations and NGOs to contribute with the civic bodys needsShe also stressed the need for a responsive administration so that ordinary citizens do not have to make repeated visits to BMC offices and receive timely transparent and secure servicesBMC to strengthen service deliveryBMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said a city with a population of more than two crore requires continuous improvement in its administrative systems to provide fast transparent and citizenfocused servicesShe said Participate Mumbai would allow companies corporate organisations NGOs experts and citizens to contribute to civic projects through funding material support professional expertise or voluntary workThe civic body is also working on systems to assess and compare the performance of different departments and wards she saidAccording to Bhide Participate Mumbai will connect external expertise and resources with the citys needs while the partnership with Samagra will focus on strengthening the BMCs internal administrative capacity and service deliveryHindustan Unilever commits Rs 25 croreDuring the event information booklets on Participate Mumbai and the Samagra initiative were unveiledHindustan Unilever also handed over a Rs 25 crore CSR contribution to the BMC for the development of 10 new facility centres in MumbaiThe event was attended by Skills Employment Entrepreneurship and Innovation Minister and Mumbai Suburban district guardian minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha Mayor Ritu Tawde Deputy Mayor Sanjay Ghadi BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide civic officials corporators employees and representatives from the corporate and voluntary sectors