MMRDA clueless about funds for Metro corridor

While chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday directed officials to fast track work on the pending Metro projects and start work on them by May, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has no clue over generating funds for the loan required for Dahisar-DN Nagar Metro-2 and Dahisar east-Andheri east Metro-7 corridor.

“The officials from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have had a round of talks with senior MMRDA officials and had also met the chief minister at Mantralaya last month, but we have not heard anything after the round of meetings. However, if the loan matter is not resolved now, we can at least begin the initial civil work for both the metro corridors. The loan agreement can be worked out at a later stage,” said a senior MMRDA official, not wishing to be named.

The state government was initially considering various financial agencies like Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the project’s loan. But, as the process of receiving aid from JICA is a lengthy one, the state government approached the World Bank and the ADB.

Recently, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) also ruled out taking financial help from the JICA for the 8,000-km long Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway citing that the JICA procedures take a long time and it ends up delaying projects thus escalating the total project cost.

Last year, the ADB had given an in principle approval to fund 36 per cent for 16.5 km Metro-7 corridor and 44 per cent for the 18 km Metro-2A corridor. The total cost of Metro-7 is Rs 6,208 and Rs 6,410 crore for Metro-2A corridor.

According to MMRDA officials, in order to avoid delay in metro projects in the city, the state government has decided to use its funds for the initial civil work and MMRDA will also contribute for the initial civil work of the project.

Apart from this, JICA will be funding 57 per cent of the total cost of Rs 27,000 crore for the Seepz-Bandra-Colaba Metro-3 underground corridor, which is being implemented by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC).