Mumbai:
No sooner had he taken charge as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray announced stopping of construction work at Mumbai Metro 3 car shed work at Aarey Milk Colony. On Tuesday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Minister Jayant Patil remarked “Maharashtra government is trying to ascertain if projects like bullet train (Mumbai-Ahmedabad) can be deferred in view of State’s Rs 4.71 crore debt burden”.
Predictably the moves of the Sena-Congress-NCP led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has raised the hackles of senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dr Kirit Somaiya who remarked that this move of the government was nothing but to force Contractors to cough up money. Arguing that this move will push project costs higher, he added that ultimately the common man will have to suffer as fares will increase.
An IIT graduate in Chemical Engineering and an Information Technology expert, Avinash Sankholkar expressed regret at the move. He argued that the move has already sent negative signals world over with investors retracting their steps. Sankholkar stated that the good contractors like L&T which relied on the support of a strong stable government will back-out of projects, leaving the field wide open to contractors known for their sub-standard work. Another area of concern is that the technology used for the project almost turns obsolete by the time the project becomes operational.
Interestingly, the Mumbai Metro 3 project and other metro corridors in Mumbai were approved on August 13, 2010 during the tenure of then chief minister late Vilasrao Deshmukh. As far as the High Speed Rail (HSR) or better known as Bullet Train project was first conceived in mid-1980’s by the then union Railway minister late Madhavrao Scindia. On December 18, 2009, the Ministry of Railways in its White Paper – “Vision 2020” had mooted the proposal of regional HSR corridors between Mumbai-Delhi-Kolkata and Chennai. The National High Speed Rail Corporation of India Ltd (NHSRCIL) was set up on July 25, 2013 to execute the project.
According to Avinash Sankholkar any delay in execution of the project leads to increase in project costs and has cascading effects like rise in fare costs if it is a transport related infrastructure project. Sankholkar stressed on the need for evolving a “Bi-partisan Approach” wherein all political parties shed their ideological differences, support the project and see to it that it is executed in a time bound manner. According to officials in the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRC), the stay imposed on the construction work will mean a per day cost escalation of Rs 1,000 crore.
This is not the first time that a regime change in India or for that matter in any other state has raised concerns over delays, cost over-runs, corruption and increase in utility bills for the people. Maharashtra has had the experience of at least six major infrastructure projects witnessing inordinate delays.
Some of the most notable projects which have seen delays and cost escalations include – Gosikhurd irrigation project for which late prime minister Indira Gandhi had laid the foundation stone on October 23, 1984; the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) which was conceived in 1963, but its implementation began only in 2018; Mumbai Metro 3 line which was approved in 2010, its implementation began in 2014; the bullet train project which was thought off in mid-1980’s saw the light of the day only in 2018; Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) whose foundation stone was laid in 1999, by late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray was completed in 2009 and the construction work on the Versova-Ghatkopar Metro 1 line which began in 2008, was completed 6 years later in 2014.
Nationally, some notable infrastructure which had to be shelved or faced violent political agitations include – Vedanta Bauxite refinery project at Niyamgiri, Odisha (October 2013); Tata Nano project, Singur, West Bengal in 2008, Jaitapur mega nuclear power plant, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, August 2013, Nanar mega oil refinery project, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, April 2018; Sterlite Copper plant, Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, May 2018 and Enron, Dabhol, Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, 1992-1999.
Some of the notable cost escalations in such projects include – BWSL whose initial cost of Rs 6.6 billion, rose to Rs 23 billion by the time it was completed in 2009. Similarly, the Versova-Ghatkopar Metro 1 line which was initially supposed to have cost Rs 2,356 crore, its project cost increased to Rs 4,321 crore by the time it was completed in 2014. The Gosikhurd irrigation project which cost initially Rs 461.19 crore in 1981-82, its updated project cost as of 2007-08 stood at Rs 7,777.85 crores as approved by the Planning Commission (Niti Ayog now) then. It took 35 years for the project to near completion.
It is interesting to note here that 740 infrastructure projects in the country, 340 projects having investments worth about Rs 11,66,000 crore are under various stages of completion or commissioned. In a written reply to an Unstarred question raised by Rajiv Pratap Rudy (BJP) in the Lok Sabha on June 24, 2019, Union Minister for Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman informed the house that 298 projects worth investment amounting to Rs 10,98,710 crore are still under consideration of the Project Monitoring-Invest India Cell (PMIC).
As per the data of Department of Economic Affairs posted on Infrastructure India portal, there are a total of 9,242 project’s with a total project cost pegged at Rs 68,28,206.49 crore. Some of these projects have been commissioned, while some are under construction, while some are yet to take off. Any project above Rs 5 crore and Rs 50 crore have been dealt with by the PMIC.
