The Cabinet sub-committee on infrastructure on Wednesday approved the decision to construct the 22-km Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) through state Government funding instead of through a public private partnership (PPP). The committee also proposed to extend the bridge’s width from six lanes to eight. The project is estimated to cost Rs 7,500 crore. “We have decided that the tender process will be cancelled,” said Anil Deshmukh, Minister for Public Works (Public Undertakings), adding that the Cabinet sub-committee that met on Wednesday had decided that the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) would carry out the work. The MSRDC has similarly, through an engineering and procurement contract, undertaken the construction of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, now five years behind schedule. The tendering process for the MTHL was mired in protracted litigation, with the Supreme Court ruling in September 2007 that the state Government had wrongly disqualified a consortium led by Anil Ambani’s Reliance Energy Ltd from bidding. The MTHL was originally to be built as a PPP project, on a build-operate-transfer basis, a scheme designed to expedite construction so that operators can recover costs quicker. Wednesday’s meeting saw bids submitted by both parties in the fray — the other consortium was led by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) — being cancelled as being “unrealistic”.
