Will the extension for the Bandra-Worli Sea Link taking it up to Haji Ali be a reality soon?
Will the extension for the Bandra-Worli Sea Link taking it up to Haji Ali be a reality soon? The brawl between Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) and Reliance Infrastructure led consortium seems to be never ending with the later questioning MSRDC's financial credentials. However, the real culprit in this scenario is none other than the state government itself!
The MSRDC top brass has claimed to be confident about the financial health of the state owned infrastructure company, but sources within the corporation have confirmed that none other than the state government itself is responsible for the huge debts under which the corporation is railing at the moment. Even minister for public works (public enterprises) Jaidutt Kshirsagar has admitted that one of the major reasons for the poor financial conditions was the money it owed to the state government.
According to a senior official of the corporation, the Integrated Road Development Programme (IRDP) executed by MSRDC is one of the major culprits.
"The IRDP has been executed by the corporation in around nine cities over last few years. The idea was to develop the internal roads of various cities including Nagpur, Kolhapur, Aurangabad, Nanded, Ahmadnagar and even Pune. While the funds for all these road development projects were given by MSRDC, the deal was that it would charge a cess of 1% on petrol and 3% on diesel on vehicles plying in these cities. In spite of a clear Government Resolution (GR) by the state issued long back, the corporation has not been given any right to collect the same. We are approximately losing Rs700 crore per annum due to this callous attitude of the government," said the official requesting anonymity.
When asked, Kshirsagar confirmed that the government was not letting the corporation collect the cess; however, he refused to comment any further on the issue.
"I do not see any financial issues with our corporation. We have been planning to raise revenues through our land pockets. We have already tied up with Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) for development of our land pockets in areas such as Latur, Kolhapur, Pune and even Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).”
“We will also look for developing land in a phase-wise manner on both sides of Mumbai Pune Expressway. I am sure the corporation will eventually go for being a listed company and we will come with an IPO as well," said Kshirsagar.
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