Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Will CM keep his promise?' that was published in Newsband

Will CM keep his promise?

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: A few days back Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had promised to complete the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) at the earliest and for that, he said, he would take all the necessary steps.

The cost of constructing the 22-km sea bridge connecting Mumbai to Navi Mumbai was estimated to be over Rs 9,000 crore. CM had informed that the Central Government would fund Rs 1,920 crore.

This project had led to some people becoming homeless since their slums had to be destroyed to make way for the project. The six-lane freeway will begin in Sewri, Mumbai and end at Chirle village near NhavaSheva.

Chavan had said that his government was keen to execute this project as it would change the face of Mumbai.

Just recently the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) informed that they were to receive bids from the five eligible consortiums by end of May for this project.

Chief Minister happened to inform the legislators that the tender documents had been distributed to the eligible consortiums and the tenders were expected to be received by end of May. Once the agreement is done, the implementation of the project would begin in six months, he said. He also informed that the project would take around five years to get completed.

The special feature of this project is that this is the first time any infrastructure project has managed to get such a huge amount (Rs 1,920 crore) as viability gap funding (VGF). The MTHL will also improve connectivity to the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport change Mumbai’s economic scenario.

The six-lane MTHL will have a 16.5km section in the sea and a 5.5km portion on land.

Over 600 slum dwellers were to get affected by the project but the government plans to rehabilitate only about 350 families. This angered some legislators who demanded that all those dislodged should be rehabilitated. Ultimately it was decided that those eligible for rehabilitation under the government rehab policy would be provided with alternative shelter.

Now it is left to be seen whether Chief Minister will keep his promise of speeding up the work on the project and get it completed at the stipulated time and whether justice will be done to all the people affected by the project.