Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Water transport bid may get scrapped

water transport
The city’s dreams of using waterways to travel around may take some more time to realise. In another case of a flip-flop over vital infrastructure projects in the city, the state government is likely to scrap the bid it received from a private company to build the cities first waterway transport system.
The state empowered committee headed by the chief secretary has recommended to the state government that the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) should build the project on its own with the help of funds from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

“The MSRDC has been asked to look into providing necessary infrastructure for water transport on its own. The funds for the project can be provided by the MMRDA,” a senior state government official said, on condition of anonymity. The committee also recommended that once the system is set in place, a private operator can be entrusted to run the project.

The MSRDC in June 2010 had received a single bid by Pratibha Industries to build a water transport system on the western coast.

The financial bid for the project was opened in August 2011 in which Pratibha Industries claimed it would recover the cost of the Rs 1,200-crore project in a period of 29 years and then hand over the project to the government.

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