Rs 150-cr shot in the arm for MRVC

The Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC), which was financially in dire straits, on Wednesday finally received Rs 150 crore from the state government after back-to-back parleys in the last few days. Now, the government has to pay Rs 850 crore more to the MRVC dubbed as the engine chugging Mumbai’s rail projects.

The funding was apparently transferred by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development

Authority on behalf of the government. The MRVC is a joint venture between Maharashtra government and Indian Railways hence both allot funds in a 50:50 ratio. However, the Indian Railways have paid Rs 700 crore extra and hence have refused to disburse additional funds until the state government contributes. The money is mainly used for implementing different projects under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP).

Senior railway officials said that after several meetings since the last few days, the state government finally agreed to pay part of their share. “We can now resume some projects which are stuck. We will start paying part funds to contractors as well,” said a senior railway official.

Owing to drying up of funds, the work on Dighe station had stopped, the process of procuring new AC locals for future, too, was affected, while construction of new rail lines also took a hit. For the past two years, a stand-off between the Maharashtra government and Centre resulted in delay of rail projects, including the plans for getting 47 AC locals that are part of Rs 10,947 crore MUTP-3; the designs and features of which are ready and proposal is lying with the Railway Board.

In fact, the MRVC employees were either quitting and/or the officers were returning to parent departments within the Railways. According to sources, 5-6 officers are currently in different stages of departing from this rail planning agency that has rail projects, worth almost Rs 50,000 crore, at different stages of development. Some of the employees are even quitting their jobs and taking up offers from private companies.

Last month, the MRVC authorities had stated that they had Rs 24 crore in their kitty, while the monthly salaries take up around Rs 4 crore. The MRVC apparently owes more than Rs 100-150 crore to contractors who are undertaking works on different projects.

The agency was on the brink of financial collapse as the impasse between Centre and state impacted funding