After spending nearly Rs3,000 crore over the past two years and slipping into a negative balance of around Rs1,500 crore, the city’s apex urban development authority has decided to completely withdraw from construction-related activities and restrict itself to its core responsibilities of urban planning and regulatory approvals. During the last two years, the authority financed a wide range of infrastructure projects, including administrative buildings, libraries, bus terminals, markets, and several city-level infrastructure developments involving public buildings and transport facilities. Construction expenditure alone accounted for close to RS 3,000 crore in this period, exhausting the authority’s financial reserves and pushing it into a significant deficit. Officials have acknowledged that there are no remaining funds to undertake any new construction work. Construction activities, officials said, do not fall within the authority’s original mandate. Despite this, the organization ventured into large-scale infrastructure and special construction projects even though it does not possess a dedicated execution wing or a multi-tier engineering structure required to supervise works on the ground. The absence of sufficient technical personnel also meant the authority lacked the capacity to properly review construction quality or maintain the assets after completion. Officials further pointed out that while substantial resources were diverted towards construction, the authority failed over the last two years to carry out its primary responsibilities, such as creating new plotted development areas, planning neighborhoods, preparing layouts, and implementing land pooling initiatives. These activities form the foundation of long-term urban development and revenue generation for the authority. Acknowledging these shortcomings, the authority has now decided to return to its fundamental role in city planning and approvals and formally exit construction activities. With its current monthly revenue standing at around Rs15 crore, officials said efforts are underway to improve financial stability by focusing on land pooling projects, layout development, and other planning-led initiatives aligned with its statutory mandate.