Global Outlook

Land acquisition issues and the lack of urgency to meet deadlines are holding up infrastructure projects in Mumbai.

Contributed by Nirmal Bang

By Nirmal Bang

Mumbai’s crumbling infrastructure is no secret. It is a complaint that every  Mumbaikar has and despite repeated promises by the state government, the city seems to be stuck in a time warp.

While over the past several years, efforts have been made to improve the city’s infrastructure and for some reason or the other, most infrastructure projects meant to improve the city of Mumbai have faced delays.

For instance, the Worli-Haji Ali sea-link, the proposed bridge to link Worli to Haji Ali over sea, is stuck because of a standoff between the state government and Reliance Infrastructure. The 5.5 km bridge was conceived as the second phase of the Bandra-Worli sea-link and would have eventually connected Bandra with Nariman Point.

A consortium of Reliance Infrastructure and Hyundai  Engineering of Korea, was awarded the sea-link project in the year 2008. But, work on the second phase, from Worli to Haji Ali, is yet to begin two years after the Bandra-Worli sea-link was commissioned.

The standoff between the company and the state government is regarding the handing over of land for the casting yard.

While Reliance Infrastructure insists that handing over of land is part of the concession agreement, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) says that they only have to pay the viability gap funding and handing over of the casting yard land is not part of the concession agreement.

The MSRDC has now hinted that it could scrap the deal with Reliance M Infrastructure citing delay in starting work. Reliance Infrastructure was supposed to have started work on the sea-link in early 2011.

The state agency has now asked Reliance Infrastructure to start work on the sea-link by January 2012 or else it will construct the 5.5 km-long bridge on its own.

This is not the only big project which is delayed. The Mumbai metro line, a rapid transit system, meant to reduce the city’s traffic congestion problems  has seen huge delays.

The first metro line between Versova and Ghatkopar, a fully overhead east-west rail link over a distance of 11.07 km has been severely delayed. The ‘bhoomi poojan’ for the first line was done on 21st Jun ’06, but even after five years, the metro line is nowhere close to completion.

The problem is a bridge over the western railway line at Andheri. While the railways have given the permission, construction work is moving slowly because of the conditions imposed by the railways.

The concessionaire Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd wanted all rail traffic suspended for five hours every night but the railways has allowed work only for three hours every night, which is delaying the project. The  deadline for the project is now set at August ’12.

The second metro line between Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd is stalled because of environmental issues. Mumbai residents have criticized the plan of an elevated metro and have suggested building an underground transport system.

Delays in acquiring land is another factor that is causing delays in crucial infrastructure projects.

For instance, the Virar-Alibaug corridor of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which will allow non-stop travel from Virar to Alibaug in an hour, has been delayed because of land acquisition issues.

The multi modal corridor will start from Virar and reach Alibaug, while passing through important townships of Kalyan, Bhiwandi and Panvel along the way.

The Virar-Alibaug corridor will be Mumbai’s largest and include separate bus rapid and mass rapid transit systems (BRTS and MRTS). It will connect four crucial national highways, NH-8 (Mumbai- Ahmedabad), NH-3 (Mumbai- Agra- Delhi), NH-4 (Mumbai -Chennai) and NH-17 (Goa- Mangalore- Kerala).

The MMRDA has said the project involves acquisition of 1,250 hectares of land and it claims that it has become increasingly difficult to acquire land because of resistance from farmers. The corridor as of now is stuck till the next civic polls.

The Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) is another instance of a project gone wrong. The project was launched in 2003 with five implementing agencies to improve  rail and road transportation in Mumbai. The total cost of the project is $945 million including a loan from the World Bank for $542 million, which was approved by the bank in June ’02.

The problem is that even after seven years the agencies have not been able to finish even a single component of the project successfully.

The nodal agency - Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development  Authority (MMRDA) - has admitted the same in a progress report sent to the World Bank, which has partly funded the project.

The key road components of MUTP are the two newly-constructed roads – the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) and the Santacruz-Chembur Link Road (SCLR). While work on the JVLR began in June ’03, it is only 95% complete and SCLR, on which work started in March ’08, is nearly 60% complete.

The other big project that is yet to commence work is the Navi Mumbai International Airport at Kopra-Panvel, about 35 km from the existing Mumbai airport at Santa  Cruz. The site for the airport was finalized in 2004, but six years later, work is yet to start on Mumbai’s second airport project.

City Industrial and Development Corporation (CIDCO), a nodal agency for the proposed Navi Mumbai airport, has said it will finish the airport project as soon as possible.

The project was initially delayed because of environmental issues. This was sorted out in November, last year, when the Ministry of Environment and Forests gave its approval to develop the Navi Mumbai airport, which would be one of world’s few ‘Greenfield’ international airports.

The airport is proposed to be developed through a public-private  partnership, in which, CIDCO and the Airports Authority of India, will hold 26% equity and the rest will be held by private developers.

The airport will be built over 1,140 hectares of land and it involves an investment of over Rs.15,000 crore. The first phase is expected to be operational by the end of 2014 or early 2015.

A number of steps to speed up the construction of the airport are been taken, while discussions on the entitlements and land acquisition models are in the final stages. The regional and local connectivity to Navi Mumbai airport project was the main concern of the agencies implementing the project.

When implemented, the airport is expected to absorb annually 10 million passengers in its first operational year end of 2014, increasing to 25 million by 2020, 45 million by 2025 and 60 million by the year 2030.

The project also includes development of non-aeronautical activities in an area of 270 hectares, south of the airport. CIDCO is also planning to develop a mangrove park on 245 hectares at Waghivale village and the regeneration of mangroves near the airport at Kamothe (310 hectares) and Moha Creek (60 hectares) too are on the cards.

The reasons for the delay in all the important infrastructure projects seem to be a lack of co-operation between agencies, land acquisition  issues and the lack of urgency to finish the work on projects, which if competed, can really make a difference to the city’s infrastructure.