Says that the Shiv Sena-governed BMC can fund the Rs 5,600-crore project alone
The Shiv Sena campaign for the upcoming assembly elections is gathering steam. After the party released a mini manifesto on Thursday, its chief Uddhav Thackeray has laid claim to the coastal road, saying the BMC can fund it alone, without the help of the state government.
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Shiv Sena party chief Uddhav Thackeray presented his vision for a coastal road on the eastern side of Mumbai Wadala-South Mumbai-Navi Mumbai but said this would take some time as land acquisition will be a difficult and lengthy process. File pic
“The coastal road, will be made by the BMC and we don’t need funds from the state government,” said Thackeray. The road, which will connect the the western suburbs to south Mumbai, was first proposed in 2011 by then Municipal Commissioner Subodh Kumar, following which there were talks of scrapping the extended sea link to Nariman Point. Now, Uddhav and his party have taken the project in their hands, saying the Sena-governed BMC can construct it alone.
Fund source
Making his party chief’s claims stronger, Rahul Shewale, former chairman of the BMC’s Standing Committee and now MP from Mumbai South-Central, said, “The total cost of the project is Rs 5,600 crore and the BMC can construct the first phase simply with the amount collected through premium for fungible FSI.
Nearly Rs 3,000 crore has been collected under this head in the last two years, and this is sufficient to start the project. In one year, we will get more money under this category. The money collected as premium is meant to be spent for infrastructure and can be used for the coastal road,” said Shewale.
Shewale said that, apart from this, the BMC has nearly Rs 3,000 crore under the Asset Reconstruction head. It also has Rs 30,000 crore in fixed deposits and assets worth R3 lakh crore just in Mumbai. “There’s no scarcity of funds in the BMC, and the project can be completed without the help of any private investor,” added Shewale.
Uddhav also presented his vision for a coastal road on the eastern side of Mumbai Wadala-South Mumbai-Navi Mumbai but said this would take some time, as land acquisition will be a difficult and lengthy process. He said this would require them to be in power.