Maharashtra wants planning agencies to share cost of infra projects
Maharashtra’s finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, on March 9, 2018, presented the budget for 2018-19, which has an estimated revenue deficit of Rs 15,374 crores and focuses on improving infrastructure. While he made a provision of Rs 10,828 crores for road development, the finance minister said the
Published -
Mar 13, 2018 4:55 AM
Maharashtra’s finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, on March 9, 2018, presented the budget for 2018-19, which has an estimated revenue deficit of Rs 15,374 crores and focuses on improving infrastructure. While he made a provision of Rs 10,828 crores for road development, the finance minister said the government was evaluating a proposal, to ascertain financial participation of local bodies and authorities in such projects. Mungantiwar, presenting his fourth budget in the legislative assembly, said works worth Rs 10,948 crores have been undertaken by the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) 3, for improving the suburban railway services. “The state’s share of 50 per cent towards the project would be borne by CIDCO and MMRDA (both state-run agencies),” he said. Under MUTP 3A, the centre has proposed projects worth Rs 54,776 crores. “A proposal is under scrutiny, to ascertain financial participation of local bodies and authorities (in such plans) and to assist them in other ways,” Mungantiwar said. The state has also made a provision of Rs 220 crores, as subsidiary loan for the metro projects undertaken by the MMRDA (in Mumbai) and Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) in Pune and Nagpur. Of this, Rs 130 crores has been provided for projects by MMRDA, while the rest is for MMRC. MMRDA has proposed a metro network stretching 266 kms, of which work on 163 kms, estimated to cost Rs 76,421 crores, has already been undertaken. MMRC is developing 69 kms of metro projects in Pune and Nagpur, worth Rs 20,100 crores. Besides, CIDCO is developing 11 kms of metro network worth Rs 3,043 crores in Navi Mumbai, while the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority has undertaken 23.3 kms of metro projects in the city costing Rs 8,313 crores. The finance minister made no allocation for these projects in the budget. Mungantiwar said the work on chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ ambitious high-speed Nagpur-Mumbai Highway project will commence from April 2018. The Rs 46,000-crore project will be implemented by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). The minister said the MSRDC has also agreed to undertake capacity enhancement of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway at a cost of Rs 4,797 crores, apart from executing the Rs 7,502-crore Versova-Bandra Sea Link project. There was no allocation by the government in the budget for these two projects, as well.
Tags : News/Views