Governor assures commuter friendly transport in Mumbai

Maharashtra governor K Sankaranarayanan assured the Mumbaikars on Monday that his government was committed to providing efficient and commuter friendly mass transit transport system in next few months.

He claimed that the first phase of the Navi Mumbai International Airport will be commissioned by 2014 and will take up 60 million passengers per year.

The governor added that the construction work on the second phase of the 32-km Metro rail between Charkop and Mankhurd will start soon and his government will ensure commuter friendly system of transportation.

Sankaranarayanan, while addressing the members of both houses of the state legislature on the first day of the budget session, said that the state’s progress in the social, economic fields is unmatched.

“To strengthen the coastal security the government has set up 12 coastal police stations and 32 check posts apart from seven more coastal police stations on card. From the security prospective, smart cards have been issued to 75,558 fishermen and 22,946 fishing vessels and 1434 non-fishing vessels have been registered,” he said.

The governor said that 169 industrial mega projects approved till February 2011, envisaged investments of Rs1.44 lakh crore and generated employment opportunities for 2.15 lakh persons.

He also said that his government is making all efforts to complete the work of MIHAN project in Nagpur.

The state government has distributed pattas to 84,760 tribals and traditional forest dwellers under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the governor said.