The Maharashtra state government has gone back on its promise of funding the next phase of Bandra Worli Sea Link. An important clause in the draft of the State Support Agreement (SSA), which is to be signed by the Maharashtra government with Reliance Sea Link One Pvt Ltd (RSOPL) and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has been deleted by the state government. A copy of the draft of the SSA is with DNA.

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According to sources, one of the clauses in the SSA was about the government bailing out the MSRDC in case the later fails to keep its commitment to pay up the installment of the viability gap. “This very clause has been deleted in the draft of the SSA. This clearly indicates that the government shall not bear the expenses in case the corporation fails to pay up,” said a source close to the development.

Meanwhile, the deadlock between the Reliance Infrastructure led consortium and MSRDC over taking over of the Bandra Worli Sea Link continued on Wednesday. In an interesting development, the corporation has refused to consider various options, which were discussed in a recent meeting between Reliance Infrastructure officials and chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad. MSRDC chairman Jaydutt Kshirsagar said he was unaware of any modifications suggested by the state government. According to sources in the corporation, it was decided in the meeting that no modifications as suggested in the meeting between the chief secretary and RInfra officials would be considered by the corporation. The suggestions in the meeting included considering negotiations with Reliance Infrastructure over the Viability Gap Funding amount of Rs1392 crore.