Aarey has been saved. But who will save Mumbai?

The decision of the Maharashtra government to relocate the metro car shed away from a green belt is a grim reminder of the mess that Mumbai has witnessed with regards to infrastructure development.

 

No one who has seen the infrastructure activity in Mumbai and Maharashtra between 2014 and 2019 will dispute that the former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is a rank outperformer.

At a personal level, I must concede that I assessed the former CM incorrectly in the initial part of his tenure when he started out by doing token actions like renaming railway stations. His agenda of infrastructure creation sounded more like his predecessors who did little more than the inauguration of projects. By 2017 – I knew I had gone wrong in my judgement when the fruits of his labour were widely visible.

There was no infrastructure plan as grand as his vision of the Mumbai Metro. And its appeal was pervasive. Even real estate developers, not the biggest supporters of the former CM, realised its potential and were banking on its timely execution. No real estate marketing material was complete without invoking a station planned next to the project site. Newer pockets of real estate development emerged on the back of the Metro.

A DECISION THAT IS A SETBACK FOR THE MUMBAI METRO

However, on October 11, 2020 – his successor Uddhav Thackeray announced the car shed for one line of the Metro will be relocated from the ‘green’ Aarey Colony to a distant location in Kanjurmarg. The battle between a determined government to have its way and a fierce battery of environmentalists that had raged on – saw its apparent closure with this move of the new government.

The message was clear: Aarey had been saved. And the environment is supreme. If there is an impact on delay in commercial services, cost-escalation or even credibility – so be it.

The relocation venue may be debatable. In my view, however, it is reckless to have reversed the decision at such an advanced stage of the project. Since there is no official report in this regard, it is reasonable to assume that the damage has either not been fully assessed or it will not be flattering.

Commentators cite damages between Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 4,000 crore and an opening that may be delayed by at least two years. Given that there is an involvement of the Government of India, Government of Maharashtra and Japan International Cooperation Agency with regards to this mega project, it is not yet even certain whether the last word on this decision has been said.

REMINDER ON OBSTACLES IN INFRASTRUCTURE BUILDING

In a way, this development is a grim reminder of the mess that Mumbai has witnessed with regards to infrastructure development. The railway network has been saturated and stressed – unable to handle the humongous population that relies on it. The bus network is limping.

Old infrastructure like roads is maintained in a shoddy manner. With such a framework, 

new infrastructure creation should have attained the highest priority. Instead, administrators 

have been unable to confront stakeholders and vested interests that create exasperating and 

expensive obstacles. Nowhere is it better illustrated than in the execution of the Bandra-

Worli Sea Link.

The foundation stone was laid in 1999 with an estimated project cost of Rs 660 crore. By the time it was complete in 2009, the cost had escalated to Rs 1,630 crore with the additional interest cost alone at close to Rs 700 crore. Similarly, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link that has always had the potential to de-densify Mumbai by providing connectivity between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai had been on the discussion table since the last three decades and today at the execution stage has seen cost-escalation rise multi-fold. Ditto with the Bandra-Versova Sea Link. Needless to say, this translates into a higher charge levied to the commuter.

It is these types of obstacles on key projects over the years that have made Mumbai a terrible place to commute for its residents. A den of concentrated action and demand gets formed with connectivity and transport acting as a barrier. As a vehicle of mass transport, the Mumbai Metro has the potential to alter that and normalise real estate prices across the city instead of the current disparate highs and lows. In fairness, it is not as if the government decision sends the entire Metro project into disarray.

But it is a powerful symbol that Mumbai is a city where infrastructure creation remains low on priority with little regard for financial consequences due to delays or alterations. Note that the construction of the Metro forced a 1 percent Metro Cess on property purchases adding to the already-inflated cost of real estate for a home buyer.

This column has consistently argued that Mumbai and its real estate is beyond redemption. The only question was whether it would go down silently into the night or not. With the burst of activity in the last three years, it appeared Mumbai was unwilling to go down without a fight. The recent announcement has, however, made it clear. The city is back to the old ways of indecisive infrastructure development. Aarey may have been saved. But who will save Mumbai?

 

Source: Moneycontrol.com