MNCs eye Metro Rail pie

First public info centre for the mega project opened

MUMBAI: The city’s much-hyped Metro Rail project connecting Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar has six leading multinationals lined up to extend rolling stocks (shuttles and other rail equipments) for the first phase of the project.

The six international firms are: Siemens - a German firm, Bombardier - a Canadian conglomerate, Alstom - a French major, Rotem-Hyundai - a South Korean consortium, Chunyun - a Chinese company, and Nippon Sharyo - a Japanese firm.

As Reliance Energy-led equity firm, Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MOPPL), has pulled up its socks to accomplish the procedural modalities of bidding, one of the above mentioned companies may win the contract to provide compartments and engines for the Rs2,356 crore first phase of Metro Rail project.

MMOPL director KP Maheshwari said that the short-listing was underway and finalising an agency’s name will be done with in a few days. Maheshwari was interacting with the media soon after the inauguration of a public information centre (PIC) of MMOPL at Saki Naka on Friday.

Hoping the project to be in the execution mode by 2008, Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said the   PIC will not only provide information on the project but will also give up-to-date information on project affected people, the structural plan of the project and track alignments.

The construction of the 12.5 km long route is stuck up due to failure on part of MMRDA in acquiring a 35-acre stretch of land at Versova, presently restrained under Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA). According to Gaikwad, the BEST has expressed its willingness to share its land in Versova and other areas along the track for the construction work. In fact, the Andheri market and Bhandup mall areas will be vacated soon for the purpose, he added.

However, the MMRDA has a reason to smile. According to Joint Metropolitan Commissioner Milind Mhaiskar, any surplus vacant land under ULCA can be extended for public projects by issuing transferable development rights (TDR).

While rightly expecting that the Versova ULC land will soon be with the MMRDA, Mhaiskar cleared that the second leg of the Metro Rail project, between Colaba and Charkop, was not embroiled in acquisition controversy.

While Reliance Energy owes 74 per cent equity in this partnership project, the government share stands at 26 per cent. The project is being developed on build, operate, owe and transfer (BOOT) basis. Maheshwari said that though the project has got delayed by a few months, the company had utilised this period to finalise contracts for various construction aspects of the rail.