Refer Report
Mumbai : It is reliably understood that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority’s (MMRDA) decision to acquire the loss-making ‘Ghatkopar – Andheri – Versova Metro 1’ route was reversed directly due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention. It is reported that Prime Minister Modi has directed the state government as this decision will cause a loss of around 650 crores to ‘MMRDA’.
MMRDA started its process from March after the state government gave the green light to the acquisition decision. However, while acquiring ‘Metro 1’ from ‘Mumbai Metro One Private Limited’ (‘MMOPL’) i.e. Reliance Infra, ‘MMRDA’, the state government was going to incur a loss of Rs 650 crores. At the same time, there were many technical difficulties in this acquisition. Therefore, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself intervened and directed Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to cancel the acquisition of ‘Metro 1’.
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MMOPL has constructed the ‘Metro 1’ route and the operation and maintenance of this route is also being done by the same company. In this route, MMRDA has 26 percent, MMOPL has 69 percent and others have 5 percent. The route, which has been in service since 2014 and was constructed at a cost of Rs 2,395 crore, has been in financial loss since its inception. Therefore, MMOPL decided to sell this route a few years ago. It was requested that ‘MMRDA’, which has 26 percent stake in ‘Metro 1’, should buy this route. Accordingly, ‘MMRDA’ had decided to acquire this route.
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Developments behind the decision
The proposal for the acquisition of ‘Metro 1’ at a cost of Rs 4,600 crore was approved earlier in the ‘MMRDA’ authority meeting. The state government had also given the green light to it. The Prime Minister came to Mumbai on the occasion of a program while the process in this regard was going on. Sources informed that at that time he scolded the Chief Minister over the decision to acquire ‘Metro 1’. Due to this decision, ‘MMRDA’ will suffer a loss of Rs 650 crores and this would only benefit the concerned company. Therefore, the Prime Minister gave clear instructions to the Chief Minister to withdraw this decision. Sources also clarified that the decision to cancel the process of acquisition of ‘Metro 1’ was taken in the Cabinet meeting in June only after the intervention of the Prime Minister.
Source: Marathi