MMRDA wants complete control

Two of the state government’s agencies are battling it out for one of Mumbai’s most ambitious infrastructure project.

After the financially crunched Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) failed to raise tenders for the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL), the cash rich Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) has stepped in and taken up the responsibility of spending for the project.    

The 22km-long link, which is expected to connect Sewri to Nhava, has an initial cost of Rs6,000 crore and the MMRDA wants to construct the bridge all by itself.

“We have included MTHL in the list of 16 projects that we intend to complete by 2013. However, we still haven’t decided whether to include MSRDC in the construction of the project. The financial condition of MSRDC is not very healthy because of which they have failed to generate response for MTHL,” a senior MMRDA official said. “We may not include MSRDC when we finalise the tendering for the project.”

While officials of MSRDC were unavailable to comment on the issue, corporation sources said that they might eventually lose out on the project since a bigger agency was eyeing to construct it. “It is true that our organisation is currently not very financially stable. We may not be able to take on such a huge project,” a source from MSRDC said.