Prithviraj Chavan takes reins of MUTP to hasten pace

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who used to monitor Mumbai’s rail upgrade project in the prime minister’s office, will now be taking its review from ground zero.

For the first time after taking over as the chief minister, Chavan, who also holds the transport portfolio, on Friday took a review of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) and has asked for a detailed presentation on all the three phases of the project. Chavan met top officials of the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), the city railway’s think tank.

“Mumbai is lucky to get Chavan as the chief minister as his presence in the PMO meant he had been following the projects in detail. On Friday, several key issues were discussed and the MRVC explained the various works in progress under all the three phases of the MUTP,” a top official said.

“Chavan was happy at the induction of 101 new technology trains in the shortest possible period of less than three years. He has expressed his desire for a detailed presentation of all the works under MUTP-I, II and III at a later date so that the suburban train operation on both Central and Western Railways can be streamlined,” Dr PC Sehgal, managing director of MRVC, said.

The Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) is one of the flagship programmes of the PMO, closely monitored for output and transparency at the highest level. Flagship programmes are regularly reviewed by Delivery Monitoring Unit set up in the PMO to monitor “iconic projects”.

The unit ensures troubleshooting through periodic reviews, informs the PM every quarter on the performance, evaluate impact and make sure that information on programmes are in the public domain to the possible extent.