Metro rail project: ROW demand struck down

Row is the access given to the contractor to carry out the construction work.

At a pre-bid meeting at Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority MMRDA headquarters earlier this week, the representatives of the seven in the fray for the contract demanded 90 per cent ROW at the start of the construction of the 32-km corridor to minimise hindrances.

Ratnakar Gaikwad, Metropolitan Commissioner, declined it stating that rehabilitation of Project Affected Persons PAPs would be done while the work is in progress, as being done in the case of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar corridor.

8220;They demanded 90 per cent ROW on the lines of the model concession agreement MCA, which is yet to be approved. Giving 90 per cent ROW would be impossible and therefore encroachments along the route and at the car depot at Charkop would be settled as the work progresses,8221; Gaikwad told Newsline.

Bidders believe this could lead to several hurdles in construction once work orders are given, causing delays. It was the issue of the ROW handover by the MMRDA to the Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-led consortium that delayed the start of the construction of the 11.2-km Corridor One. Ten months after the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd began the civil construction, the MMRDA is still to resettle PAPs at J P Road, Andheri and hand over the 200 metre stretch near Andheri station on both east and west sides.

MMRDA is still to demolish a hillock at Asalpha and construct a road before handing over a 600 metre stretch to the contractor. Another stretch from Saki Naka to Sarvodaya junction in Ghatkopar was still to be handed over to MMOPL. Contractors are still to start work on a 2.5-km stretch.

When asked whether the ROW issue would cause delays in the second corridor, Gaikwad said even for other large scale projects in the city, encroachments are cleared when the work is in progress.

Though, the MMRDA is still to survey PAPs on the route, the state government has given its clearance to rehabilitate nearly 14,000 displaced families on the 50-hectare car depot land in Charkop.

8220;We8217;re still to carry out a survey to determine the exact number of PAPs on the stretch,8221; said Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director public relations.

Gaikwad said, 8220;Most of the corridor would go through the Link Road, so there is no major problem. We expect PAPs in areas like Kurla, Mankhurd, etc.8221; According to a rough estimate, the MMRDA is expecting around 1,500 PAPs, excluding the displaced families at Charkop.

During the pre-bid meeting, MMRDA agreed to the demand of bidders to extend the last date for submission of fiscal bids by 45 days. Gaikwad said the extension of time will not delay the project significantly. The MMRDA had earlier planned to start work on the line two by January end, which will now start in March end. 8220;After the bids are in, selection would take around a month, following which the creation of the special purpose vehicle SPV and awarding of civil contract, etc would be done by April. So the actual construction is expected to start by June,8221; Gaikwad added.

So the actual construction is expected to start by June,8221; Gaikwad added.