The Hindu Business Line : Mumbai sea link: Anil Ambani consortium bags project

Mumbai, Feb. 20 The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, that aims to promises to cut travel time between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai on the mainland by more than an hour and a half, has finally cleared a major hurdle. A consortium led by the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group and Hyundai Group of South Korea have won the Rs 6,000-crore project for constructing the 22-km long sea link.

The project, a dream child of J.R.D. Tata, saw at the final bid stage, consortiums led by the Anil Ambani Group and SKIL Infrastructure, believed to be promoted by Mr Anand Jain (an associate of Mr Mukesh Ambani), pitted against each other.

The Anil Ambani consortium clinched the mandate on the promise of transferring the project to the Government at the end of 9 years and 11 months after commissioning.

Mr Anil Deshmukh, Minister Public Works (Public Undertaking) of Maharashtra, said that the project was designed on Build-Own-Operate basis. Cars will have to pay Rs 120 as toll and larger commercial vehicles Rs 250. The toll amount would be revised in the fourth year of operation, he said.

Toll levy

The most surprising aspect of the final bid was the numbers of years the consortiums will levy toll on the motorists. SKIL Infrastructure was to levy toll for 75 years and Anil Ambani Group for 9 years and 11 months.

On being questioned about the vast difference between the number of years needed for consortium partners to recover the project cost, Mr Deshmukh was evasive and did not give satisfactory answers.

He was equally non-committal about the ways in which his ministry would ensure that the project would be completed on time. Mr Deshmukh said that the after the commissioning of the link, 50,000 vehicles would ply on the bridge every day. It will also reduce the traffic on the Mumbai-Pune highway. The link will also provide communication to the upcoming airport and SEZ development in Navi Mumbai, he said.

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