NCP leaders are upset as MMRDA has taken over big projects like the Mantralaya makeover from the MSRDC and the PWD.
Ever wondered why crucial infrastructure projects in the city take an eternity to move off the drawing board? One of the major reasons is the tug-of-war over projects between the agencies headed by the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), partners in the ruling coalition.
Chief minister Ashok Chavan may be putting up a dogged fight at the Centre over the Navi Mumbai airport, a project very close to the heart of Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel, of the NCP, but back home, he has to face stiff opposition from his cabinet colleagues from the alliance partner over the execution of vital projects, including the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL).
At the centre of the project delays is the tussle between the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), controlled by the NCP, and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), controlled by the Congress.
Sources in the MMRDA have confirmed that the decision regarding the construction of the 22-km sea link — which will connect Sewree and Nhava while also providing seamless connectivity through road as well as metro — has been delayed due to differences within the cabinet.
“The main issue is about who will be implementing the project. The project was to be implemented by the MSRDC originally. Now, MMRDA has proposed to carry out the construction. While MSRDC is a financially weak organisation, ministers from the NCP are dead against the project going to MMRDA,’’ said a senior government official.
“The NCP ministers believe that MMRDA is taking away all the projects from MSRDC and the Public Works Department (PWD). First it was the MTHL, and then they offered to carry out the East Coast passenger water transport project and even makeover projects, including the Mantralaya and government colony in Bandra,” said the bureaucrat.
MMRDA officials say that the Mantralaya makeover was a part of Nariman Point makeover — an area where the authority already is a Special Planning Authority. And it offered to take up the the government colony makeover as there was a proposal to extend the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) up to Kalina.
“We don’t mind if the PWD carries out Mantralaya makeover; however, we can do a better job,” said a senior MMRDA official.
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