Mumbai: For the last six to seven years, Mumbai’s infrastructure projects, aimed at giving the city’s transport system a much-needed upgrade, have been getting inordinately delayed.

That’s primarily because the state government and private players, who were supposed to develop the project on the so-called built, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) basis, are working at cross-purposes.

Consider this. Bids for the Maharashtra government’s ambitious infrastructure project, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), to connect Sewri in the island city and Nhava-Sheva in Navi Mumbai, were first invited in 2005.

The state government, however, scrapped the process on the grounds that the competing bids by the Ambani brothers (estranged at the time) were unrealistic. There is little argument about how critical the project is—the ₹ 9,640 core, 22.5km MTHL is supposed to reduce travel time between south Mumbai and Navi Mumbai from 60 minutes to 25 minutes.

In 2008, the global financial crisis ensured that there was no demand for even the request for qualification (RFQ) document. In 2012, five bidders were short-listed and were to submit their financial bids in August 2013.

However, all of them opted out of the race, primarily because the state government has a poor track record of providing adequate support for the projects it awards, resulting in the infrastructure developer not getting sufficient return on investment.

Another reason why the short-listed bidders decided to stay away from the MTHL project was that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is yet to obtain clearance from the environment ministry for construction in the area, which falls under the coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) I category. MMRDA is the state government agency responsible for the infrastructure projects.

The bidders also disagreed with MMRDA’s traffic volume projections since they do not see any prospect of work beginning soon on the Navi Mumbai Airport, ostensibly the main reason for the sealink. The only people who have benefited from the announcement of the Navi Mumbai Airport are real estate developers in the area who have seen prices of land and houses skyrocket since 2006.

MMRDA officials on the other hand blame the withdrawal by bidders on the current sluggish economic scenario in which financial institutions are reluctant to lend funds to infrastructure projects.

It’s hard to buy this line of thinking, though, given the government’s track record.

On 31 July, IRB Infrastructure Developers Ltd chairman and managing director Virendra Mhaiskar wrote to MMRDA commissioner U.P.S. Madan pointing out that the company hasn’t been able to start toll collection in Kolhapur for the last two years due to stiff resistance by locals.

He said the company, which has invested ₹ 200 crore in the road development project, isn’t being provided police protection to start toll collections.

Another project—the Metro line II project connecting Charkop and Mumbai’s western suburbs to Mankhurd in the east—is yet to get mandatory clearances despite having been awarded by MMRDA to Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (R-Infra) in 2009.

Earlier this year, R-Infra decided to opt out of the project as the state government had failed to win environmental clearance for the project.

In July, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corp. (DMICDC) said it had dropped plans to develop a manufacturing zone and township near Dighi port in Raigad district on 6,000 ha of land to attract investments and help create much-needed jobs. The reason was again the lack of clearances.

Another project that’s been shelved is the Worli-Haji Ali sealink. The ₹ 5,100 crore project hasn’t moved since the contract was awarded because the state government has decided to explore the option of a costal road as an alternative to the sealink.

R-Infra, which was awarded the project, exited the project on this ground. It had been demanding land near Bandra for a casting yard (where much of the pre-construction activity would be carried out) and, according to the state government, the allotment of land for this purpose was not part of tender conditions.

When Chavan was sworn in as chief minister of Maharashtra in November 2010, there were lots of expectations. He was perceived as a man with a clean image and also a technocrat who understood the complexities of infrastructure projects that run into thousands of crores. Also, Chavan had first-hand experience in shaping policies from his stint in the Prime Minister’s Office as minister of state in 2004-10.

Three years down the line, those hopes appear to be vanishing. Although he has able to maintain his Mr Clean image, reduce corruption and bring transparency in the urban development ministry to some extent, Chavan is yet to make any meaningful contribution to Mumbai’s infrastructure projects.

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