MUMBAI: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis's assertion that the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) will be completed by 2019 ignores the facts on the ground. Several financial and technical issues are yet to be sorted out.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) decided to take up the 22-km MTHL project on a cash contract basis after it did not receive a bid from any of the pre-qualified consortia till August 2013, when it was trying to execute it on a public-private partnership basis.
The state wants to complete the work on the Navi Mumbai airport by 2019, but doubts persist about completion of the MTHL by then.
"The process to seek funds from the Japan International Cooperation Agency is not yet complete," a state official said. "The matter is still with the Department of Economic Affairs in New Delhi. It will take at least a year to ink the agreement for funds from JICA."
The JICA has agreed to provide a loan to cover up to 80% of the cost of the project that will bring the city and Navi Mumbai closer.
Another issue is the lack of coordination between the state government and the shipping ministry. The state has sought 24 hectares of land from the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) for the project, but the shipping ministry wants Rs 450 crore as compensation for the land.
"All these issues need to be sorted out before we can call for tenders from the contractors," the official said.
The MTHL is estimated to cost Rs 11,000 crore. The project is to be executed under the cash contract or engineering, procurement and construction method, with Rs 8,800 crore expected from JICA. The Union ministry of environment & forests granted CRZ clearance in July 2013.
If the JICA funding does not happen, the plan is to pool in equities from stakeholders like JNPT and Cidco.
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