Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor set to derail

DESPITE push from the Planning Commission and the PMO for the past six years,the estimated Rs 20,000 crore public-private-partnership project of Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor the biggest in India is set to go off-track,thanks to strong opposition from the Maharashtra government. In a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday,Chief Minister …

DESPITE push from the Planning Commission and the PMO for the past six years,the estimated Rs 20,000 crore public-private-partnership project of Mumbai Elevated Rail Corridor the biggest in India is set to go off-track,thanks to strong opposition from the Maharashtra government.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Wednesday,Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan communicated that the project was no longer viable in the present form because the ridership of the 63-km line between Churchgate and Virar would not reach as per estimates since a Metro line would also come up on the same route.

After the meeting,the PMO ordered a fresh study of the traffic/ridership the project is expected to generate taking into consideration the proposed Phase-III of the Metro line. It was agreed that a fresh traffic study would be conducted taking into account the traffic capacity being created by the new Metro line which is partially on the same alignment, a statement from the PMO said.

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A fresh traffic study now,when eight infrastructure majors,including Reliance,the Tatas,Larsen and Toubro and GMR,have already applied in the Request for Qualification stage,could mean reduced figures of expected returns for the private investors,apart from the inevitable delay. The commercial contract is supposed to be awarded in early 2014 and the bidders are supposed to be shortlisted by November end.

If the Metro line is taken into account the ridership of the elevated rail project comes down drastically and the project does not remain viable, Maharashtra Chief Secretary J K Banthia told The Indian Express.

In the earlier estimate of 2007,the ridership was pegged at 1.7 million per day by 2019-20.

Maharashtra also has a problem with the PPP model in which the state is supposed to give land for the project at reduced rates while allowing the concessionaire to raise money by commercial utilisation of the 26 station complexes through enhanced floor space index. Lower ridership estimates for the line would mean it would not be worthwhile for the state to make such huge concessions at the cost of revenue. The project was pegged as a capacity augmentation to Mumbais growing need for public transport.