01 December,2010 06:48 AM IST | | Ranjeet Jadhav
Metro Man says Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor should have been divided into two lines as per original plan to make it more viable for commuters
THE second leg of Mumbai's ambitious Metro project, the 32-km long Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd corridor is doomed in more than one way, according to 'Metro Man' E Sreedharan.
In a letter (a copy of which is with MiD DAY) to the Maharashtra Government and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), Sreedharan states that the original plan of two separate lines - Line No 2 from Charkop to Colaba and Line No 3 from Bandra to Mankhurd - was more viable than the present Charkop-Bandra-Mankh- urd corridor.
u00a0
The proposed Charkop-Colaba line by DMRC was a much longer route, so MMRDA decided to go ahead with the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line instead
He reasons that the Charkop-Colaba line would provide easy access to the thousands of commuters who travel to South Mumbai everyday.
The original plan was made when officials from the MMRDA, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Maharashtra Chief Secretary met in the capital in 2008. However, Sreedharan claims in the letter, the MMRDA took a U-turn and decided to build Line No 2 as Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd instead.
Speaking to MiD DAY, Chief of Transport and Commission P R K Murthy admitted that metro Line No 2 was earlier planned between Charkop-Colaba and said changes were made only because the Charkop-Colaba line would have been longer than the present plan for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line.
'Rein-in costs'
In the letter, Sreedharan has also strongly suggested that the metro Line No 2 be constructed on the lines of the DMRC model (see box) and not the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) model to save on costs. He says that a metro project has never been successful on a BOT basis anywhere in the world.
It is, therefore, too early to draw comfort from metro Line No 1 of Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar, which is being constructed by Reliance Infra, he has stated.
"If a metro construction is undertaken by a private party, there are no duty and tax concessions, making the project costlier by 12 to 15 per cent.
Further, the cost of finance works out to be much higher for a private builder. These factors make BOT projects costlier by 25 to 30 per cent," independent architect Nitin Killawala told MiD DAY.
Higher fares
The increased budget outlined by MMRDA for the metro lines is expected to ultimately hurt the commuters who will have to pay more fares to use the service. The budget for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line is Rs 8,250 crore, more than three times the Rs 2,356 crore budget for the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line.
Metro Man's success stories
In 1970, as the deputy chief engineer, he was put in charge for implementation, planning and design of Calcutta metro, the first ever metro in India.
He was appointed the CMD of Konkan Railway on contract in 1990. Under his stewardship, the company executed its mandate in seven years.
He was made the managing director of Delhi Metro and by mid-2005, all the scheduled sections were completed by their target date or before and within their respective budgets.
What is the DMRC model?
The model is similar to the cash-contract model where the government funds the project and appoints contractors to carry out the work. The advantages of this model are that the government can keep a regular tab on the status and it works out cheaper than the Public-Private Partnership model.
Rs 8,250 crore
The budget for the Charkop-Bandra-Mankhurd line, which is more
than three times the Rs 2,356 crore budget for the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line
