MMRDA has just 2 projects in Rs6,000 crore budget

Admitting that their income through land sale in Bandra-Kurla Complex has suffered a jolt due to recession, the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) presented a Rs6,143-crore budget for the financial year 2010-11 on Tuesday. Besides a human development programme for the metropolitan region and development of the Gorai-Manori area, the authority has desisted from announcing any other new project.

Announcing the budget, chief minister Ashok Chavan, who is also the chairman of the authority, said that projects such as the inland water transport has been given importance. “We are providing Rs100 crore for the project, and the eastern water transport will be implemented first,” said Chavan.

Referring to the recessionary trends in the real estate sector, MMRDA chief Ratnakar Gaikwad said: “We have not got the expected response to our land sale offers. Buyers who have bought land in the past have failed to pay up on certain occasions.”

Development of Gorai, Manori and Uttan areas are the new ventures announced. “Out of the total 4,300 hectares of land in the area, about 88% is government land. We intend to develop the area keeping the environmental significance of mangroves in it. Hence we have decided to develop a mangrove park there. We will take help from the Swaminathan Institute of Mangrove Conservation for this purpose. We also plan to set up an ancient Indian culture research centre on a 150-acre land in Gorai. Besides this, we intend to conserve gaothans as heritage sites as well as preserve the fishing activity in the area. To develop roads and jetties for better connectivity to the area, we have made a provision of Rs100 crore,” said Gaikwad.