Bid to speed up work on infrastructure in Maharashtra

The Maharashtra state government will be setting up a war room at Mantralaya to monitor various infrastructure projects in the state. According to Narinder Nayar of the Citizens’ Action Group (CAG), the war room will keep details of all the infrastructure projects and their progress on a day-to-day basis so that tracking them becomes easier. Nayar, who is also the chairman of Bombay First, said CM Ashok Chavan who met the CAG along with senior officials recently agreed to the suggestion as an effective way of tackling the delays in the progress of infrastructure projects. The concept of a war room was recommended by experts at an international conference on city infrastructure organised by Bombay First. The room would function by tackling infrastructure construction on a war footing. The head of the city transformation unit of the All India Institute of Local Self Government, U P S Madan said another proposal accepted by the chief minister was the speeding up of five ‘iconic’ infrastructure projects for the city which would be undertaken on priority basis. Listing the projects, Madan said they were the nine Metro rail and four monorail projects, the Sewri-Nhava Sheva transharbour link, the sea link from Versova to Nariman Point and the Eastern Expressway. In addition, there are sea transport projects for the Western and Eastern coastlines of the city and a low cost rental housing plan which is intended to make five lakh housing units available in the next five years, Madan said. He added that some missions would be initiated to address issues like health and education.