State may save the day for city

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government is planning to come out with a Rs 600-crore component to give the Rs 4,000-crore phase II of Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) the much-needed push. “We are moving a proposal before the Cabinet saying the state is willing to bear a cost of Rs 600 crore for the MUTP phase II.

Earlier, the state wanted the Railways to fund this component. The latter had agreed, but the project is not on its priority list since it depended on availability of funds and budgeting,” a senior state government official said. The state is now drafting a proposal with the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) in this regard.

“If the state government approves the proposal and sends it to the Railways in time, it could become a part of the railway budget,” an MRVC official told ET. State government officials said efforts would be made to clear the proposal before the election code of conduct for municipal corporation polls comes into force. “Railway budget gets finalised by January-end. We are rushing things so that the Railways can budget this proposal for the next fiscal. Otherwise, it will get delayed by one year,” another official added.

The Railways is the implementing agency for the project and has to raise 60% of the outlay as loans. Earlier, the state government had urged the Railways to bear 20% of the non-loan component and recover it by levying surcharge on commuters. “But the Railways argued that passing on the cost to commuters would be quite taxing. So, the project did not make any headway.

For the fund-starved state, Rs 600 crore was a big amount,” a senior official pointed out.What has led to the state’s change of mind is the MUTP phase II feasibility and Centre’s refusal to foot the viability gap funding (VGF) for Mumbai Metro, another railway project in the city, sources said. “The Centre, in particular the finance ministry, is not ready to foot Rs 600-crore VGF. They have a valid point regarding the cost of the project, which is why the Union urban development ministry is looking at the cost equations of Delhi Metro,” a source said.

Apart from the VGF, factors like technical specifications, land acquisition and resettlement could upset the Metro schedule. “Till Metro rail happens, we need to give a push to MUTP II so that suburban railway service gets upgraded. MUTP II will help us do that just in five years while the deadline for Mumbai Metro’s completion is 2021,” he added.

MUTP phase II envisages a substantial upgradation of suburban railway service in terms of quality and quantity. It will establish two dedicated corridors for outstation and suburban trains on central and western lines. This would lead to more frequency (a train every three minutes on all three suburban lines), cost efficiency (20-30% saving on energy), and most importantly, a substantial reduction in traffic.

As against the load-carrying capacity of 1,700 commuters in peak hours, rakes at present are crammed with over 5,000 passengers. MUTP phase I, which is under way and expected to be completed by June 2007, is expected to improve train frequency to lessen the burden. Phase II will also help the Railways convert current nine-bogie rakes into 12-bogie ones.