Pune Budget 2026-27 Puts Merged Villages on the Infrastructure Map

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram has presented a record civic budget for FY 2026-27, and the headline takeaway for homebuyers is clear: the fringe areas absorbed into the city over the last decade are finally getting serious money. PMC Commissioner Naval Kishore Ram presented the civic body's budget for the financial year 2026-27 before the standing committee, and the Rs 13,995 crore civic budget for the financial year 2026-27 marks an increase of Rs 1,377 crore compared to the previous year.

Roads remain the single largest line item outside salaries. Urban mobility and water security stand as the twin pillars of this plan, with Rs 1,866 crore allocated for roads and Rs 2,077 crore for water supply. On the water side, the civic body has made a revenue provision of Rs 1,274.65 crore and a capital provision of Rs 2,077.43 crore for water supply-related works, as the city grapples with rising demand against constrained supply.

The most consequential shift for buyers eyeing Pune's outer belt is the dedicated push into merged villages. PMC has earmarked Rs 954 crore in its FY2026-27 draft budget to improve roads, sewage and water supply in recently merged villages and standardise civic infrastructure. Officials have been candid about the backlog: the civic administration has acknowledged that basic infrastructure in the 32 villages recently merged into PMC limits remains inadequate, and the budget therefore includes provisions to upgrade roads, water supply systems and drainage infrastructure in these newly incorporated areas.

Water is being tackled with a project-level plan rather than blanket promises. PMC has appointed a consultant to implement the common water supply scheme in 34 newly merged villages, with preliminary work already begun in areas such as Bavdhan, Sus-Mhalunge and Lohegaon-Wagholi, where new storage tanks and several kilometres of pipelines will be developed. The civic body is also tightening metering and reducing losses -- plans are underway to install ultrasonic and electromagnetic meters, which are expected to improve billing accuracy and reduce arrears, especially since nearly 41.98 per cent of meters are currently faulty.

Governance is being streamlined alongside the money. The initiative also follows the transfer of planning authority for several merged villages from PMRDA to PMC, which should mean faster, single-window approvals for layouts and building permissions in these zones going forward -- a detail that matters for anyone tracking project timelines in Wagholi, Bavdhan or Sus-Mhalunge.

The budget isn't without risk. PMC had expected revenue of Rs 12,618 crore for 2025-26, but by the end of January 2026 it had collected only Rs 7,701 crore, leaving a significant gap even after further collections by March. The rising budget size has also raised concerns about the corporation's ability to increase revenue to match the growing expenditure, which means execution speed on ground -- not just paper allocation -- will decide how fast these villages actually see better roads and reliable water.

Beyond roads and water, the budget spreads its attention across civic services that indirectly shape quality of life in these growth corridors: the Primary Education Department has been allocated Rs 979 crore and the Health Department has a total allocation of Rs 881.74 crore, while a reject waste processing facility capable of handling two lakh tonnes on a 5-6 acre site, plus a 300 metric tonnes per day facility in Hadapsar, have been proposed to keep pace with the expanding city's waste load.

For homebuyers, this budget is a useful signal rather than an overnight fix. Areas like Wagholi, Bavdhan and Sus-Mhalunge -- long constrained by patchy roads and unreliable water -- are now formally in PMC's capital works pipeline, with funded, named projects rather than vague intent. As Smart World widens its footprint from Gurugram into cities like Pune, buyers evaluating homes in these newly merged pockets should track construction progress on the water pipeline and road works over the next two budget cycles before finalising a purchase.