MUTP II’s costs rise to Rs 8,000 crore

The costs of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project II have now increased to Rs 8,000 crore from the Rs 5,300 crore that was sanctioned in 2008. This, sources have said, is due to red tape within the railway ministry as well as unforeseen expenditure.

A total of 10 works comprise the project, with the highest increase seen in the work of the new 5th and 6th line — meant to provide a separate line between Chhatrapatti Shivaji Terminus (CST) to Kurla — which has gone to Rs 800 crore from Rs 510 crore followed by its counterpart, the 6th line between Mumbai Central to Borivali, which has escalated from Rs 450 crore to Rs500 crore. These additions, said a railway official, would continue to keep rising until the final day of the work is done, “To a certain degree, we can understand that the work is ongoing, but now the railways cannot afford this delay anymore. We already don’t earn an enough profits from the Mumbai suburban so injecting so much money into projects that have such a high expenditure in the first place and allotting more money every year to these projects has made a lot of people weary,” said an official, requesting anonymity.

Other projects include the extension of the Harbour-Western Railway services from Panvel/CST to Goregaon from Andheri, resettlement of those affected due to the project, yard remodeling and the 5th and 6th line between Thane and Diva.

Mumbai’s track record has been the reason why Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu signed a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with chief minister Devandra Fadnavis in June of this year. The sole purpose of the SPV is to expedite ongoing railway projects pending over a period of time. The SPV is also meant to clear the path for the next projects that come under the MUTP III, which was sanctioned by Mr Prabhu in his budget speech in February.