State govt puts metro on track

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government on Thursday gave the final approval to the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor of the phase I of Metro rail project. The corridor is estimated to cost Rs 6,192 crore. Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh gave his nod to the second corridor of the first phase at a general meeting of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). The chief minister is the ex-officio chairperson of MMRDA.

The MMRDA has a 26% equity in the special purpose vehicle (SPV) formed with a consortium of companies led by Reliance Energy (REL) of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) which has bagged the contract for the first phase which comprises three corridors.

The MMRDA is the project implementing authority and it would be operated on a build-own-operate-transfer basis for 35 years of which 5 years would be construction period.

For the second corridor, the MMRDA has requested the state government to bear the viability gap funding of Rs 1,658 crore.
The state government has already approached the Centre for VGF of Rs 650 crore for the first corridor of Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar estimated to cost Rs 2,356 crore. Mahim-Kurla-Mankhurd is the third corridor of the first phase of which is estimated to cost Rs 1,655 crore.

The entire Metro rail project,which comprises nine different corridors to be taken up in three phases, is projected to cost around Rs 19,525 crore. Actual construction work on the first corridor is likely to begin in November. The first phase is likely to be completed by ’11 and deadline for the entire project is ’21. The nine corridors would cover a length of 146.5 km of which the first phase will build 63.5 km. Of the total track-length of 146.5 km, 32.5 would be underground and the rest elevated.

The 11-km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor will have 12 stations and the second corridor 27 stations. The MMRDA would require 46.98 hectares of land for the entire Metro project of which 40 hectares would be used for building two depots at Mankhurd and Charkop. The remaining land would be used for providing access to stations.