PM disappoints, mum on makeover

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Mumbai visit turned out to be a damp squib, with him keeping mum on Mumbai’s multibillion-dollar makeover plan and making no significant announcements.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Mumbai visit turned out to be a damp squib, with him keeping mum on Mumbai’s multibillion-dollar makeover plan and making no significant announcements.

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Singh, who was in Mumbai on Friday and Saturday for the sesquicentennial celebrations of the Bombay high court and for an IIT event, met chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on both days but even these meetings did not result in any immediate announcements.

Sources said, however, that the PM had accepted Chavan's demand for funding for the Metro third line and the Sewree-Nhava Sheva sealink. “We were hoping for some announcements, but unfortunately they didn’t come,” said a senior official.

The state government had handed over a list of demands.

It was therefore assumed that Singh would reaffirm the Centre’s support to the city’s makeover by announcing a task force for better coordination.

Other than a statement that he would expedite the handing over of Indu Mills land for a memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar, however, the prime minister made no reference to the megalopolis at all.