The National Highway Authority of India has plans to construct a road between Dahanu and Revas, which could make the MMRDA’s plans financially non-viable.
Even before feasibility plans for the multi-modal rail and road corridor between Virar and Alibaug could take off, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has suffered a major setback in the project. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has plans to construct a road between Dahanu and Revas, which could make the MMRDA’s plans financially non-viable.
A senior MMRDA official confirmed the development and said the NHAI’s plan of constructing the road connecting Dahanu and Revas has created problems for the authority. “We have recently appointed Louis Berger as our techno-economic and financial feasibility consultant for the 140km long multi-modal corridor, which is going to cost us Rs10,000 crore. It is a massive project with a potential to change the face of the entire Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR). But, if the NHAI constructs the road project somewhere in the alignment of the multi-modal corridor, it will definitely hamper the financial viability of our project,” said the official.
While the NHAI project is just for road transport, the multi-modal corridor is a combination of various modes of transport. The 140km-long corridor has been divided into two phases — a 90km Phase-I from Virar to Panvel and a 50km Phase-II from Panvel to Alibaug. The corridor provides for a 30-metre wide metro corridor in the median, a 4-lane corridor for bus rapid transit system (BRTS), and another 4-lane corridor for motor vehicles. Also, there will be 5-metre wide pedestrian pathways, 7-metre wide 2-lane service roads, 2.5-metre wide parking lanes for four-wheelers, 3.5-meter wide lanes for two-wheelers, and 2-metre footpaths on either side.
Even as MMRDA officials are in talks with NHAI and are urging them to drop their project, according to sources, the deadlock has still not been broken. “The NHAI officials have said that their project along with the multi-model corridor will not hamper the growth of the region. But, the MMRDA top management is of the opinion that if such small road projects are taken up, the financial viability of projects which are holistic in nature would be in danger,” said an MMRDA official.
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