The time table for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), one of the city’s biggest infrastructure projects, has gone for a toss.
The time table for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), one of the city’s biggest infrastructure projects, has gone for a toss. World Bank officials said it openly for the first time on Wednesday. Senior urban transport specialists of the bank blamed the state government’s lackadaisical planning for the project running behind schedule.
The concluding day of the Megamorphosis — a two-day international conference on the resurgence of Mumbai — featured a seminar on the physical infrastructure of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
During an interactive session at the seminar, World Bank’s senior urban transport specialist, Hubert Jove Josserand, was asked why a key project like the MUTP had fallen behind schedule. He said that the project had mostly progressed as per expectations, but the time table had been flouted.
“Mumbaikars are now travelling in better trains. The roads are still not completed, but will be taken care of soon. However, we feel that the project has fallen behind schedule mainly because of the lack of planning at the stage when it was conceptualised. It started off without adequate planning,” he said.
Reacting to the World Bank statement, Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) chief Ratnakar Gaikwad said that his organisation was not to be blamed for the delay. “We are responsible for the rehabilitation aspect of the MUTP. Our job is almost done. We have rehabilitated more than 45,000 people — the largest for a single project in India. Rehabilitation is not an easy task.”
Both are guilty: Sanjay Ubale, who once as the secretary (special projects) had planned many mega projects for the city, blamed the government for its failure to adhere to the MUTP time table. Ubale, who now heads the realty and infrastructure wing of the Tatas, added that it had been a mistake on the government’s part to keep private players out of infrastructure projects. He criticised the World Bank too. “Even the bank is to be blamed for the delay. It has failed to keep tabs on the officials involved in the project.”
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