In what may soon turn out to be the biggest loan from World Bank after economic sanctions were imposed by United States, the railway ministry expects the multilateral institution to sanction the proposed Rs 5,376 crore loan for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project-II within the next two months.
"We are in the final stages of the negotiations. I expect the loan sanction by December when another meeting is scheduled with the World Bank.
The Bank has also agreed to fund two more works involving an additional Rs 635 crores", Ram Naik, minister of state for railways told Business Standard, after meeting World Bank representatives in New Delhi on Tuesday.
"One of the points that came up in the last negotiations in November,1997 was that we need to create the organisational set-up to implement the project. We signed an MoU with the Maharashtra government in May and informed the World Bank about it. Now, they have appreciated our work and I feel the Bank is very ernest about this project", he said.
Officials at the Rail Bhavan said the process of negotiations had somewhat slowed down after the economic sanctions were imposed. " The phase of uncertainity and dilly-dallying is now over", a railway official said.
The World Bank representatives who visited Mumbai and held discussions with the Maharashtra government last week, have indicated their interest in funding two additional sub-projects .
They are conversion of the electric traction from DC to AC and remanufacturing or refitment of electrical multiple units (EMUs).
A special task force is being set up by the Indian Railways to determine the course of work involved in the conversion of traction lines and reengineering of the locomotives (EMUs).
The project involves creating an east-west link connecting Bandra with Kalyan, quadrapling the Borivili-Virar section, lying two additional lines on the Santacruz-Borivili route and an additional line on the Kalyan-Thane section.
" We will be able to run 12 additional rakes every day and provide relief to the 59 lakh daily commuters in Mumbai", Naik who hails from the metropolis, said. He told World Bank representatives that the metropolis was on the verge of collapse because of inadequate transport fecilities.
