Deshmukh wants Metro to run by 2012

MUMBAI: Mumbai will soon have a unified transport authority if state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has his way. The chief minister also wants the timeline for the Metro rail project to be advanced.

Mr Deshmukh told a meeting of MMRDA and the Vision Mumbai Task Force to ensure that the Metro project gets completed by 2012, and not by 2019-20 as scheduled earlier, sources in Mantralay said. The Rs 19,525-crore project proposes to build nine Metro rail corridors in three phases.

The chief minister’s insistence on early completion of the project is quite surprising, given that the first phase — three corridors spanning 68.62 km — itself would take another four years to be completed as per the original timeline. In all, the nine corridors will 147 km. A special purpose vehicle between MMRDA and Mumbai Metro-one, a Reliance Energy-led consortium, is building the first 11-km corridor connecting Versova, Andheri and Ghatkopar. It has a 2009 deadline.

Officials who attended the meeting said the chief minister was keen on putting all Mumbai makeover projects on fast track. “Most of the projects have missed deadlines and some are yet to take off,” an official told ET.

Mr Deshmukh also gave an in-principle consent to set up a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, which would try to develop an integrated approach towards the transport requirements of the city, co-ordinating the efforts of different agencies like the BEST and railways. “The Mumbai transport services unit under the Mumbai Makeover Task Force would prepare a concept note within three months on this,” an official said.

The much-delayed Mumbai Development Fund has also been set a deadline of December 2007. “The government plans to raise Rs 30,000 crore in 10-12 years through this fund. We will put a certain premium on the incremental benefits of infrastructure projects.

For example, if an extra FSI is granted to a certain locality or to a different agency, the government would take a portion of the accrued financial benefits that the incentive FSI is estimated to fetch that agency,” the official explained.

Mr Deshmukh has also given green light to a study to explore the feasibility of building a tunnel between Malabar Hill and Nariman Point. The MMRDA has been asked to appoint an international consultant to suggest world-class design, contracting and quality control processes for infrastructure projects, sources said.

The chief minister would himself pilot the long-pending $60-billion (around 2.4 lakh crore) business plan for the Mumbai metropolitan region at a meeting with Mumbai legislators and it would later be submitted to the Centre.