Coronavirus lockdown: Infra projects come to a standstill

Infrastructural projects have come to a standstill in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) because of the state and nationwide lockdown, to contain the spread of

Infrastructural projects have come to a standstill in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) because of the state and nationwide lockdown, to contain the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus. The lockdown will continue till April 14. State agencies are yet to assess the losses and delays this will cause to ongoing projects in the city, which are valued at more than Rs 1 lakh crore, but officials said timelines would be severely affected and cost escalation was inevitable.

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In a statement released on Wednesday, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is executing the Metro 3 (Colaba-Seepz), said, “The 33.5-km project has some crucial aspects to be taken care of especially near its deep excavations and tunnelling works. Thus only necessary and inevitable activities, such as instruments monitoring buildings and ground operations of tunnel boring machines in slow and degraded mode, where unavoidable etc, will be carried out until further orders from the state government. The workers and engineers involved in essential activities will be strictly adhering to the Corona guidelines.” The cost of Metro-3 has already gone from Rs 23,000 crore to Rs 32,000 crore owing to previous delays.

“Only essential activities like curing, securing sites against any damage due to inactivity are in progress. All major activities have stopped at sites until further notice,” said an official from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the nodal agency for Metro projects in the city. Another official said that even if the agency asks for special permission, it would be an uphill task to carry out work. “Labour movement, machinery, everything is affected. The entire supply chain has come to a standstill,” the official said.

Of the 14 Metro lines planned in MMR, the agency has started work on seven, two of which — Metro 2A (Dahisar-DN Nagar) and Metro 7 (Dahisar E-Andheri E) — were to be operational by the end of this year. MMRDA is also implementing the Rs 22,000 crore Mumbai Trans Harbour link and several flyover projects in the city.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is implementing the Rs 55,000 crore Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi corridor has instructed contractors to follow the directives of the respective district collectors. The projects spans 10 districts and 26 tehsils and the state has restricted movement across districts. Joint managing director, MSRDC, Vijay Waghmare said, “As such the labourers are confined to respective package works without any mixing with other groups. But we have told contractors to follow district collectors’ guidelines respectively.”

Waghmare also confirmed that repair work on the Sion flyover in the city has stopped.