The engine which was chugging Mumbai’s rail projects has again kick-started. The railway planning agency of Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has finally got funding from the Maharashtra government after more than 2 years. On May 11, they received Rs 150 crore from Maharashtra government. This leaves a shortfall of additional Rs 850 crore.
Senior railway officials said that after back to back meetings since the last few days, the state government finally agreed to pay part of their share which has come into MRVC kitty on Wednesday. “We can now resume some projects which are stuck. We will start paying part funds to contractors as well,” said a senior railway official.
The funding was apparently transferred by MMRDA on behalf of the State government. The Indian Railways have paid Rs 700 crore extra and hence have refused to disburse additional funds until the state government contributes. As MRVC is a joint venture between Maharashtra government and Indian Railways with ratio sharing of 50:50; the funding is shared equally. The money is mainly for implementing different phases under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP).
The work on Dighe station had stopped, the process of procuring new AC locals for future too were affected, plus construction of new rail lines too took a hit. For the past two years now a stand-off between the Maharashtra government and Centre resulted in delay of rail projects, including the plans for getting 47 AC locals that are part of Rs 10947 crore MUTP-3 for which its designs and features are ready and the proposal is lying with the Railway Board.
In fact the MRVC employees were either quitting and/or the officers were returning to parent departments within the Railways. According to sources, 5-6 officers are currently in different stages of departing from this rail planning agency that has rail projects worth almost Rs 50,000 crore, at different stages of development. Some of the employees are quitting government jobs and taking up offers from private companies.
Last month the MRVC authorities had stated that they had Rs 24 crore in their kitty while the monthly salaries take up around Rs 4 crore. The MRVC officials stated that as there was no work, employees were quitting, even projects came to a halt. The MRVC apparently owes more than Rs 100-150 crore to contractors who are undertaking works on different projects.
