Exactly five years ago, when the first Modi government took charge at the Centre, we published our GV report on Mumbai infrastructure. It couldn’t have been more appropriate, that we publish its second volume, exactly after the ascension of the second Modi government. In the five years between our two reports, a few projects have started operations and enhanced the archaic infrastructure of the city. But what is more heartening is that scores of large and small infrastructure projects are under construction in the city – which will completely transform its infrastructure landscape in the years to come.
Right on the heels of our first volume of this report, multiple key projects began operations (some partially) – perhaps in an effort to derive electoral benefits for the 2014 Centre and 2015 State Assembly elections. The projects enhanced the connectivity and the infrastructure of the city significantly.
In our first report, we had also listed some of the key projects, which were under development/construction stage at that time, and were expected to see progress over the next few years. We are happy to note that all but one of those projects are under construction right now – that their pace of execution could have been faster, is something that Mumbaikars always have to live with. Key projects that were highlighted then:
• Sion Panvel Link Road: The 25-km-long eight-lane road was commissioned in September 2014. The part of the project that involved building a new bridge over Vashi creek was cancelled, and the developer (Essel Infraprojects) was allowed to commission the project and collect toll on the highway part of the project. Later, the project got into litigation over toll reimbursement, after the state government banned tolling of private vehicles on state highways – eventually leading to Essel Infra terminating the contract and pursuing with litigation.
• Mumbai Metro Line 3: The 34km long fully-underground metro line was at conceptual stage in 2014 – and often drew flak from experts for being an “impossible” project in a city like Mumbai. However, in 2016, MMRDA awarded seven packages of this ‘dream line’ to five developers, and work is being executed at rapid pace.
• Navi Mumbai airport: Perhaps one of the most delayed project – Phase 1 of the airport was awarded to the GVK led consortium in February 2017 – after being delayed for over 5 years. The developer is yet to award the EPC contract. Commencement of work is expected by December 2019.
• Mumbai Trans Harbor Link: After multiple attempts to award this project on PPP basis, MMRDA finally awarded the 22km long, Sewri-Nhava Seva MTHL, on EPC basis to L&T and Tata Projects in November 2017 – after having procured funding from JICA. The project is expected to be completed by 2022.
• Coastal Road and Bandra Versova Sealink: The two projects (with the latter being part of the former) were awarded at different times in 2018. The projects, along with the already operational Bandra-Worli sealink, plan to connect the western suburbs with the island city through a network of six-lane roads, service roads and sea-links.
• Churchgate-Virar Elevated Rail corridor: The project, envisaged to decongest the western railway line, has been put on the back-burner, and stands little chance of being revived.
But for the last one, all the above projects are at various stages of construction the activity, and should help transform the infrastructure landscape of the city significantly.
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