Reliance yields, puts Metro back on track

MUMBAI: In a move that may facilitate construction of the first 11km elevated metro rail between Versova and Ghatkopar, the Reliance Energy-led consortium has agreed to reduce the government subsidy of Rs1,251 crore that it had sought for the project by almost half - to Rs650 crore. The offer was made to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

The disagreement between the consortium and MMRDA on the quantum of subsidy had delayed the project by almost two months. The consortium had won the bid in March.

The construction is scheduled to begin in October or November, but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the project by May-end. Barring a small 250m stretch on JP Road on which a group of shopkeepers and the caretakers of a 40-year-old mosque are refusing to relocate, the MMRDA has widened the road from Versova to the Western Express Highway.

MMRDA Additional Metropolitan Commissioner T Chandrasekhar said: “We expected the consortium to submit a reasonable figure as the viability gap funding they had sought earlier was not possible for us to accept. The amount of Rs650 crore is comfortable for a pioneering project of this kind.”