In an embarrassing development, the so-called “ambitious” Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) project did not receive a single bid, which has once again highlighted the sorry state of mega-infrastructure projects in the city. All of the five short-listed consortia, that included local and foreign infrastructure majors, did not bid for the MTHL. However, the MTHL is not the only project to suffer this fate. There are many other projects that started with lot of hype and hoopla, but have been mired in problems and missed a series of deadlines for completion.
Mumbai’s mega-infrastructure projects, which were undertaken as part of the government’s promise to transform the metropolis into Shanghai, are now either stuck or crawling at a snail’s pace. The delay in these projects has not only resulted in nightmares for the citizens, but also escalated the co-st of construction heavily. According to experts, “The number of hurdles have derailed or led to the abandonment of most of the city’s ambitious projects, and the main reason behind this is the lack of foresight.”
Projects like the `2,356-crore Mumbai Metro-1, and the `2,460-crore monorail projects faced hiccups due to poor planning, non-execution of Right of Way (RoW) in time, relocation of religious structures and issues related to political interests played a key role, ultimately delaying the execution. Following the harrowing experience of Metro-1, even Reliance Infra — the consortium constructing Metro-1 — has not stepped forward to take on the task of reviving Metro-2.
Consequently, these hardships have played a bigger role in stalling even the other mega projects, such as the second phase of the metro, extension of Bandra-Worli Sealink, new routes of monorail, and Navi Mumbai international airport, with the latest addition to the list being the MTHL project — all crucial projects to reduce the pressure on the city’s existing infrastructure. “Why blame only the MMRDA, even the rail ministry had to issue fresh bidding documents on August 7 after one year of carrying forward its Churchgate-Vihar Elevated Corridor project. It is usual whenever work at such a large scale is undertaken; we have to deal with initial problems. This is prevalent not only in Mumbai, but is a problem all over the world,” said an MMRDA engineer, in-charge of one such mega project.
Transport expert Jitendra Gupta says, “The root cause is that government officers work at the behest of the contractors. Contractors intentionally delay the project just to escalate the cost; they generally do this by starting the process of getting the nod of another agency only at the eleventh hour,” adding, “Since there is no unified command on whom the responsibility can be fixed, officials end up resorting to blame-game only.”
Transport activist Rishi Aggarwal says that delaying projects have a far-reaching impact on city. “Apart from cost escalation, incomplete projects create a nuisance for citizens in day-to-day life. Additionally, its tends to become a menace, only adding to the problem that it was meant to be the solution to. Even the peoples’ priority and needs change by the time the project opens to public,” he said.
A source in MMRDA said, “As a nodal agency, we have learnt many things and hope that we can apply them to future projects.” He, however, admitted, “Most of the time, we have to face political interference and impediments in carrying forward the projects. This is such a issue, and one that we cannot dare to overlook.”