There has been practically little development on the project despite the significant budget increase of almost Rs 4,300 cr over the last 4 years.
Many parties have contested the project’s environmental clearance, which has caused legal snags for the project and supreme court is now involved in the case.
The 17.7 kilometres long, Rs 7,000 crore project was supposed to be finished in 2023.
The project’s completion date has now been moved to December 2026 by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), the project’s nodal organisation.
The VBS development project was initially awarded in 2019 to a collaboration of Reliance Infra Ltd. & Astaldi of Italy, after a competitive process.
L&T & ITD Cementation received L2 and L3, with project costs of Rs 7,600 cr & Rs. 7,300 cr, respectively. Reliance-Astanali JV was the L1 at a price of Rs 6,993 crore.
Reliance Infrastructure was managed to sell to Astadi in 2021, and APPCO, a business based in Uttar Pradesh, joined Astadi as a new joint venture partner on the project.
In February 2017, MSRDC (Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation) received Environment Clearance (EC) from the (SEIAA) State Environment Impact Assessment Authority.
The NGT’s Western Bench dismissed the case in August 2022 after JMMVKSS (Juhu Moragaon Machhimar Vividh Karyakari Sahkari Sanstha), a fish workers society, contested the EC given to the sea link.
Following that, the case was brought before High Court, which also denied the petition.
Thereafter, a different petitioner submitted a comparable petition contesting the EC given to the development of the NGT.
In opposition to the NGT bringing up a similar matter, which was previously resolved by High Court & the NGT’s Western Bench, the MSRDC has now filed a petition with the Supreme Court.
The project’s cost has increased to Rs 11,333 cr as a result of the excessive delay, according to Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who also mentioned the MSRDC’s request for an immediate hearing in Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is going to hear MSRDC’s appeal in March.
