DisSATISfied with work, World Bank pulls out

The plan to improve the station areas is moving at snail speed as the city’s developers are no longer under the whip of World Bank (WB) officials.

The reason — the much touted Station Area Traffic Improvement Scheme (SATIS) has been excluded from the list of projects to be executed under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) funded by WB.

The bank officials, who were in the city, said that the depreciating value of dollar was just one of the reasons for the project to be out of WB funding.
To improve commuter and pedestrian movement and traffic circulation around railway stations, SATIS was proposed at six suburban stations - Ghatkopar, Andheri, Borivili, Malad, Dadar and Chembur.

In 2002, WB sanctioned a loan of Rs4,526 crore for the MUTP project including SATIS which was estimated to cost Rs2,602 crore. However, as the value of the dollar dropped from Rs48.32 to Rs39.35, the government received almost Rs500 crore less than the expected loan amount.

“Also the delay in executing the project was a crucial reason for excluding the SATIS project from the total loan amount. It was decided that it will be implemented by MMRDA in collaboration with BMC,” said Hubert Nove-Josserand, WB official.
However, PRK Murthy, chief of transportation and communication of MMRDA, clarified that the delay was not only for SATIS but all  MUTP projects.

A government official, requesting anonymity said, “SATIS was constantly
getting delayed and the World Bank officials would not have  entertained this. Hence, the  government requested them to use the loan amount for other projects under the MUTP.”