Centre allocates Rs 10 lakh to two elevated corridors
Panvel-Virar-Vasai corridor pegged at Rs 8,787 crore, where Virar was finally mentioned in the Pink Book as well.
Mumbai: It has emerged from the “Pink Book” which provides details of actual monies a project gets that the railway ministry has officially allocated Rs 10 lakh for the two elevated fast corridors CST-Panvel and Bandra-Virar that were announced nearly three years ago.
Railway officials said this meant that they did not have to wait for another year to start work on the corridors.
For Mumbaikars, it meant that the corridors were no longer promises made by government but projects on which work would start soon.
An official said, “In simple terms, the government has opened an account for both corridors and now, the money will keep coming in. This will now go to the cabinet for approval and once an okay is received, work can start. Basically, nothing can now stop construction of these corridors.”
As per the Pink Book, the CST-Panvel corridor is worth Rs 15,000 crore while Bandra-Virar has been pegged at Rs 16,000 crore. The document also mentions CST-Panvel with an extension to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NIMA) as part of the corridor, thereby giving direct access to the anticipated airport.
The Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) III on the other hand has been allocated Rs 411 crore, which is approximately half of the entire project.
Speaking about what these allocations meant, especially for the two elevated corridors, Prabhat Sahai, chief managing director of Mumbai Rail Vikas Coporation (MRVC), which had asked for these corridors in the first place, said, “This is an important development as by allocating Rs 10 lakh, it is an assurance that we can start work for the same. Until now, we had done surveys but now, we can start the actual work. If this money was not mentioned in the book, we would have had to wait for the next year to start work, further delaying the corridors.”
Although union railway minister Suresh Prabhu has never gone on record about the exact time it will take for these corridors to be operational, he did promise that he would take concrete steps towards them during his tenure.