Infra projects come to a standstill

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 ₹1 lakh crore, but officials said timelines would be severely affected and cost escalation was inevitable.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is executing the Metro 3 (Colaba-seepz), said, “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 cost of Metro-3 has already gone from₹23,000 crore to ₹32,000 crore owing to 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 Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is implementing the ₹55,000 crore Mumbainagpur Samruddhi corridor has instructed contractors to follow the directives of the respective district collectors.