It’s official. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has been given the go ahead to construct the Mumbai Trans Habour Link (MTHL). The much-awaited decision on the ambitious project was finally taken by chief minister Ashok Chavan, on Wednesday, after a marathon meeting with top MMRDA officials on Tuesday night.
The MMRDA, however, is expected to face a lot of difficulties constructing the 22km sea link up to Khopoli as the road passes through the Karnala Bird Sanctuary (See box). According to MMRDA commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad, even the cost of MTHL will now go up to Rs9,279 crore instead of Rs8,311 crore, which was estimated earlier. The escalation in cost is due to the additional 28-km stretch that is to be constructed to connect MTHL with the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
But the MMRDA on its part has pushed hard for project, which is one of the biggest infrastructure projects to be undertaken in the city. In the Tuesday nights meeting with the chief minister, officials from the authority briefed Chavan about their readiness to take on the mega project.
Gaikwad was confident of the authority bagging the project after meeting the chief minister on Tuesday. “We presented the MMRDA’s side to the chief minister. I guess we have the best chance of bagging the project,” Gaikwad had said on Wednesday, before the CM made his decision.
According to senior MMRDA officials, since the government has now given MMRDA a green signal to proceed with the project, the authority will prepare a modified detailed project report (DPR) along with the request for proposals (RFP) within next two months. “We can infact go for tendering in another six months if things move ahead as per our expectations,” said Gaikwad.
“There was an idea of running a rail freight corridor along MTHL, but MMRDA has made it clear that such a corridor should be planned by the concerned authorities like Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), and the railways. The MMRDA will support them.”
Officials from the authority added that the Union ministry of surface transport has already given an in principle approval to grant a 20% viability gap funding. “The department of economic affairs will get these funds through additional central assistance. The concession period for the successful bidder will be of 45 years,” Gaikwad said.
The authority has also made it clear to the chief minister that a special project vehicle (SPV) comprising multiple government agencies will not be a viable option for a project of such enormity. According to sources, the MMRDA wanted the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation to be kept out of the project, which they told the CM in clear terms.
“MSRDC has failed to get bidders using both cash contract and public private partnership (PPP) models. Hence, we made it clear that there has to be a single agency carrying out the project,” a MMRDA official said.
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