MTHL update

The work on the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) is unlikely to begin anytime soon as it will take at least a year to achieve financial closure for the project that is likely to be funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The JICA has agreed to provide a loan to cover up to 80% of the cost of the project that will bring the city and Navi Mumbai closer. “The Department of Economic Affairs at the Centre is handling the matter of obtaining funds from the JICA,“ a state government official said. “The JICA is likely to carry out its own study , which will take at least six months.Thereafter, there will be signing of the loan agreement with the JICA, which may be at least 12 months from now.“
The MTHL is estimated to cost Rs.11,000 crore. The project is to be executed under the cash contract or engineering, procurement and construction method, with Rs.8,800 crore expected from JICA.
The JICA study aims to determine the financial and technical feasibility of the project. The agency will assist MMRDA in gaining inputs about the construction methodology to be adopted.
The Centre has already approved 20% of the project cost as viability gap funding.
The MMRDA decided to take up the 22-km MTHL project on a cash contract basis after it did not receive a bid from pre-qualified consortia till August 2013, when it was trying to execute it on a public-private partnership basis.
The project was proposed in 1984. Environmentalists, led by the Bombay Natural History Society , had sought the starting point of the bridge to be 700 metres south of its current position in Sewri, saying the realignment was crucial to save the Sewri mudflats and flamingos.
The Union Ministry of Environment & Forests granted CRZ clearance in July 2013.
If the JICA funding does not happen, the plan is to pool in equities from stakeholders like JNPT and Cidco. The state wants to complete the work on the Navi Mumbai airport by 2019, but doubts persist about completion of the MTHL by then.