The Maharashtra government has prepared a business plan requiring an investment of around Rs 2.5 lakh crore for development of infrastructure in Mumbai and peripheral areas, a top official said today. “We are envisaging an investment of up to $60 billion (around Rs 2.5 lakh crore) for developing transport, water-supply and sanitation in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR),” Additional Chief Secretary and MMRDA Metropolitan Commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad told reporters here today.
“We need public-private-partnership (PPP) in a big way to bring about development in MMR,” he said. Gaikwad said the state was focusing on the rental housing models and aimed to have 300,000 flats/tenements ready in the next three-years. “We have received 45 proposals to build 300,000 houses in the next three-years,” he said.
For improving sanitation in the city, the state government will also construct 14,000 toilet seats in the city by December this year, he said. “Besides, we will be investing Rs 4,700 crore to generate up to 3,100 million litres per day of water for the next 10 years,” Gaikwad said.
This entails the building of three dams at Shai, Poshir and Kalu at an investment of Rs 3,700 crore, he added.
The Mumbai Metro rail projects will not only change the face of the city but also save time for commuters, Gaikwad said.
The Metro II project, which has been awarded to a consortium of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Communications and Canada-based SNC Lavalin, will begin on August 18.
The project will link Navi Mumbai and Charkop and Mankhurd in suburban Mumbai. “We have undertaken a study of the underground commercial development of Mumbai Metro Phase III,” Gaikwad said.