State won't give funds for Worli-Haji Ali sea link

After govt back-out, MSRDC will have to find its own resources for Rs1,392-crore viability gap funding

The state government appears to have developed cold feet after talking big on funding the city's big ticket infrastructure projects. After promising to bridge the viability gap for the Worli-Haji Ali sea link project in February this year, it has done a U-turn now. It has asked the cash-strapped Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) to pay up Rs1,392 crore from its own coffers for the purpose.
In February this year, the cabinet committee on infrastructure had agreed to assign the construction work of the Worli-Haji Ali sea link to the consortium of Reliance Infrastructure and Hyundai.
While the consortium had quoted the cost of the project at Rs4,301 crore, it was to pay MSRDC Rs1,634 crore towards buying out the Bandra-Worli sea link as per the original agreement. The consortium is to get a viability gap funding of Rs1,392 crore for constructing the six-km sea link, including a kilometre-long connector at Haji Ali. The meeting had decided that the state government would fund the viability gap.
However, the minutes of the meeting, prepared on June 9, 2010, tell a different story. The committee has now clearly said that the state will not fund the viability gap. "It has been decided that the viability gap funding (VGF) for the project, which is Rs1,392 crore, is to be given by the corporation in three equal installments," say the minutes of the meeting, a copy of which is with DNA. MSRDC vice-chairman and MD Sonia Sethi confirmed the government refusal. "We are yet to speak to the central government for aid," Sethi told DNA.
MSRDC sources said this is a clear case of the government backing out from giving support to the corporation. "The government was to give us Rs942 crore for the construction of the first sea link. But so far, they have paid us about Rs300 crore. As a government of Maharashtra undertaking, we cannot directly ask for central funding," said a source from MSRDC.
Despite attempts, MSRDC chairman Jaidutt Kshirsagar was unavailable for comments.