Road to nowhere

It's a project that was meant to alleviate Mumbai's traffic snarls by 2004. Three years later the 5.6-km Bandra-Worli sea link that will connect suburban Mumbai to central Mumbai still has some way to go. The latest roadblock: The contractor, Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), wants its dues of over Rs 600 crore to be cleared by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).

The root of the problem is cost-escalation. When HCC bagged the contract in 2000, the project cost was pegged at Rs 400 crore. However, a few changes down the line (including the introduction of a cable-stayed bridge at one end and a decision to have two independent four-lane bridges, as against the original plan of an integrated eight-lane bridge) have resulted in hcc contending that it has spent Rs 889 crore till date.

The company says it has received a payment of just Rs 248 crore. Work on the project, however, continues and the government says it will be completed in 2008. "We are confident of completing it in 2008. Two years ago, barely 5 per cent of the project was completed and today 60 per cent is done," Anil Deshmukh, Minister of Public Works, told BT. Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman & Managing Director, HCC, is concerned. "This is an amount of very large magnitude. The issue needs to be dealt with a sense of urgency." Clearly, Rs 600 crore is no laughing matter; for Mumbaikars a further delay in the sea link isn't funny, either.