Cabinet approves cost escalation of over ₹10,000 cr for Metro 3 project
Mumbai: The state cabinet on Wednesday approved a cost escalation of over ₹10,000 crore for the Metro 3 project. Approving the revised cost of ₹33,000 crore for the project, chief minister Eknath Shinde asked the administration to complete the first phase of the project in 2023. Metro 3 is delayed by more than two years owing to the dispute over its car shed at Aarey Milk Colony.
Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that the cost of the project has increased to ₹33,000 crore from ₹23,000 crore. “In 2015, its estimated cost was ₹23,000 crore but due to cost escalation, it has gone up by over ₹10,000 crore,” Fadnavis said.
For almost two and half years, the project work was stalled and thus phase 1 and phase 2 which were supposed to start in 2021 and 2022, respectively, could not be completed. “This is because the stay on car shed work,” Fadnavis pointed out.
As per the revised estimates, the cost of the Metro 3 has been increased to ₹33,405 crore from ₹23,136 crore.
Both the Maharashtra government and the Centre are funding the project. “The state government has directed the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to provide ₹1,297 crore as the state’s share to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL). Similarly, the central government has also been requested to release its share for the project,” said a senior official from the state urban development department.
Following the escalation in its cost, the amount of loan from JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) has also mounted to ₹19,924 crore from ₹13,235 crore. “A proposal for a rise in loan amount for the international agency was also approved in the state cabinet meeting,” the official said.
Around 98.6% of work on tunnels and 82.6% of work on underground stations have been completed by the MMRCL but when it comes to the car depot, only 29% of the work has been completed thus far, informed the deputy chief minister.
“We will try to complete the first phase of the project by 2023,” he added.
The work of the Metro 3 project took a back seat after the previous Uddhav Thackeray-led government decided to shift its car shed from Aarey Colony to Kanjurmarg owing to environmental concerns. However, after coming to power, the state government decided to shift the car depot back to Aarey Colony.
The 33.5-km-long Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro-3 project is the first underground corridor of the Metro networks coming up in the city. Of the total 27 stations, 26 of them are going to be underground.
Meanwhile, the state cabinet also decided to hike the compensation to the farmers for the loss of the crops due to the heavy rainfall in various parts of the state since the first week of June. The compensation for the losses of crops on non-irrigated land has been increased to ₹13,600 a hectare from ₹6,800 per hectare given as per the National Disaster Management Fund (NDRF) norms.
The crops on more than 15,06,000 hectares have been destroyed while in some areas the land under cultivation has been washed away to a large extent. “We have also decided to extend the upper limit of land holding to 3 hectares for the compensation. This will cover more farmers that will get monetary assistance,” Shinde said after the cabinet meeting.
An official from the relief and rehabilitation department said that with the decision to double the compensation the burden on the state exchequer will go up to ₹2,400 crore. “As per the current estimate of the losses, the expenditure is estimated to double to ₹2,400 crore. We are expecting the revision of the NDRF norms to increase the rate of compensation for all three categories (irrigated, non-irrigated, perennial) crops soon,” the official said.
He said that the decision over doubling the compensation for the crops on irrigated land and for the perennial crops is yet to be taken. As per the NDRF norms, the compensation for the crops on irrigated norms is ₹13,500 a hectare, while its ₹18,000 a hectare for perennial crops.
Sign on to read the HT ePaper epaper.hindustantimes.com
