Expressway jinx

NOVEMBER 12: The laying of the foundation stone for the proposed Mumbai-Pune expressway by Prime Minister I K Gujral scheduled on November ...

NOVEMBER 12: The laying of the foundation stone for the proposed Mumbai-Pune expressway by Prime Minister I K Gujral scheduled on November 15 was postponed again for security reasons.“The programme has been postponed. The new date for laying the foundation stone will be announced by Chief Minister Manohar Joshi after consulting the Prime Minister,” Public Works Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

Earlier, the Sena-BJP government had declared that the foundation stone for the Rs 1,500 crore expressway will be laid in the last week of December ’96. However, it was postponed since the state government had not obtained environmental clearance for the project from the centre. After the alliance government assumed power on March 14, 1994, top on its priority was the Mumbai-Pune expressway. In view of the huge cost involved, they declared that it will seek private participation. As the government found that entrepreneurs had quoted exorbitant cost, it decided to execute the project on its own and set up the Maharashtra Road Development Corporation for the purpose.

Another hurdle in the project was the environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The ministry made it clear that it will not grant permission since the plan envisaged acquisition of huge tracts of forest land. Ultimately, the PM came to the rescue of the alliance government. Ignoring the protest lodged by his cabinet colleague Saifuddin Soz , Gujral asked the department to grant conditional clearance.Since Gujral was instrumental in granting the clearance, Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had urged him to lay the foundation stone for the project during his visit to the metropolis on November 15. Though Gujral agreed to the programme, now the PMO’s security officials have taken objection to the function. “They (security officials) need at least a week for a survey of the area, then only the programme is cleared. Secondly, Gujral has given us only 25 minutes for the programme. It will not be possible to organise the function in such a short time since it will take at least 30 minutes to reach the venue (Kon on Mumbai-Pune road) by helicopter,” a senior official of the PWD said.

Under the circumstances, the department has urged the Chief Minister to seek another date from the Prime Minister for the programme, the official pointed out.

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