Another 6 months for completion of MMRDA's new office

The construction work of the new head office of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) at Bandra-Kurla Complex seems to be never-ending. Now, officials have said, it will take another six months for it to get ready.

Since the time groundwork began in 2008, repeated pushing back of the deadline has led to the project cost doubling.

Speaking to dna, metropolitan commissioner UPS Madan said, "Interior works are going on at the moment. These works take time to get completed."

As per the revised deadline, the latest date of completion is September 2014. The previous deadline set by the development authority officials was March 2014.

The groundwork for the project had begun in March 2008 at an estimated cost of Rs48.91 crore and the promise had been to get it ready by March 2010. However, since then, the deadline has only been revised and the ever-burgeoning cost, which has more than doubled now, stands at over Rs110 crore.

The design of the structure is iconic, with glass façade, for a new look of a government building and has a feel of an international corporate house. It will have a podium and nine storeys.
In April 2011, the authority even had initiated the process to procure security systems for the new office, but the same haven't been utilised.

The latest under-construction office space is being built behind the existing head office of the MMRDA on a 9,172-sqm. plot with a built-up area of 1 lakh sqft.
ateeq.shaikh@dnaindia.net