The politics of stalling projects has begun with less than a month left for the Lok Sabha elections. The Mulund skywalk, construction of which is undertaken by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), is the latest such project after a group of local Congress activists got the ongoing work suspended following a meeting with Chief Minister Ashok Chavan last week.

The MMRDA has “temporarily suspended” the work on the skywalk. “The issue is being discussed at the highest level, wherein the views of the people will be considered. If any mistake is being made on our part, we will rectify it. But, we are sure the work will restart soon,” said Colonel Anant Kumar, additional chief engineer in-charge of the skywalk.

The MMRDA had planned the skywalk to connect Mulund East and West and the work had begun a month ago. Sources said the work was suspended on the orders of Chavan who is a member of the Authority.

Constructing a skywalk entails not only digging the ground but also worsening the traffic congestion. Similar is the case with the Mulund skywalk. At present, the MMRDA has reduced the road space to half in Mulund. Local people fear that if the work drags, the MMRDA will not be able to complete the work before monsoon and this will mean further traffic congestion.

It is to be noted that infrastructure agencies like CIDCO and MMRDA are directly controlled by the ruling party, which nominates the members on its board. This ensures the party’s control over bureaucrats and the agency at large. Last week, the Chief Minister had asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to stop its work of replacing the sewage lines. The BMC comes under the urban development department, which is directly controlled by the Chief Minister. Interestingly, the clashes between the Congress-headed MMRDA and the Shiv Sena-BJP-headed BMC are well known.

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