The project completion deadline has been set at 2019, but the commencement is itself getting delayed. Earlier, there were problems pertaining to suspension of environment clearance after National Green Tribunal had suspended the project.
For almost a year, the state government had been mentioning that loan agreement with Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will be signed by the end of fiscal year 2015-16 and soon thereafter bids for civil work of Sewri-Nhava Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) will be floated.
The project completion deadline has been set at 2019, but the commencement is itself getting delayed. Earlier, there were problems pertaining to suspension of environment clearance after National Green Tribunal had suspended the project.
Now, the latest delay is in signing of loan agreement between the state and JICA for the Rs17,500 crore worth sea link project. "Some procedures are yet to be completed, which has caused the delayed in agreement signing. It should take another couple of weeks for it to be through," shared a Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) official.
The official shared that certain clearances are yet to come in from JICA, among them is signing of Letter of Intent. It is only after this procedure; Request for Qualification tenders can be floated.
The existing delay in implementation and certain kind of design has already resulted in cost escalation of the project from Rs11,000 crore to Rs17,500 crore. With more delays in store, the overall price of this ambitious 22-km long project is likely to go up further.
The state and MMRDA's plan was to float bids immediately after formally and officially getting into a pact with JICA to borrow project's 80 per cent's finances and thereafter after series of scrutiny and meetings award the work order by October 2016. With the ongoing delay, maintaining the same timeline of 2019 looks unlikely.
As per MMRDA's plan, the MTHL will have a total of six lanes, three in either direction. Of the total 22-km, 16.5-km will be bridge component and the balance would be on coast at Sewri and Nhava. Earlier, there were plans to have a metro line for public transport on MTHL, but it has been shelved off by MMRDA officials to have a toll-based bridge.
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