Two months after Anil Ambanis Reliance Infrastructure-led consortium emerged the sole bidder for the citys second Metro rail corridor,the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authoritys executive committee awarded it the Rs 8,250-crore contract on Wednesday. Reliance Infrastructure is already building the first Metro corridor from Versova to Ghatkopar via Andheri. The bid they submitted was a reasonable one and weve awarded it to them after evaluation, said Dilip Kawathkar,joint project director (PR). Reliance Infrastructure will spend Rs 5,952 crore,with the Centre providing a viability gap funding (VGF) of Rs1,532 crore and the remaining Rs 766 crore coming from the MMRDA. The 32-km corridor,with 27 elevated stations,will run from 5 am till midnight after commissioning. The letter of intent is expected to be submitted in a couple of days. We expect them to sign the concession agreement by September 15, said Ratnakar Gaikwad,metropolitan commissioner. This elevated design for the corridor has seen several protests from residents of Juhu,Vile Parle,and Linking Road. MMRDA officials say an underground route involves too high a cost; it would mean getting all designs passed again from authorities. Two roads were cleared for development under the extended Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project - Vasai to Kaman via Sativali (15 km) and Arnala to Ambadi via Virar,Kaner and Shirsad (19 km). A rail over-bridge will be built along with a link road on the first corridor at Vasai. The development of a 34-km road network and the bridge will cost Rs 285 crore, Kawathkar said. The committee named Louis Burger Inc as consultants to study the feasibility of developing 14 underground stations between Colaba and Bandra,in the third Metro corridor.
