The Maharashtra Government on Saturday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Netherlands for seeking technical expertise on the feasibility of combining the coastal road and city Metro projects aimed to linking northern suburbs of Mumbai with south Mumbai.
“Two Netherlands experts have reviewed the existing plans with the officials of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC). Both participants agree that there is scope for innovative co-operation in the field of infrastructure development and delivery,” the MoU signed between Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated.
Under the MoU, the Maharashtra Government would be seeking the Dutch government’s technical expertise on building a third line of the Mumbai metro along the proposed coastal road connecting north and south Mumbai.
Talking to media persons after signing the MoU with Netherlands Government, Fadnavis said: “Working with nature is the theme of the project as the Dutch have lot of expertise in reclamation of land. There is enormous scope for collaboration between Maharashtra and the Netherlands in the areas of agri—food, floriculture, biotech, energy, health as well as infrastructure and water management”.
“The Netherlands is a global expert in creating land and infrastructure in the sea. Nearly 17 per cent of the country’s current land mass has been reclaimed from the sea and lakes. Mumbai and the Netherlands are densely populated and because of the shortage of land, it is necessary to create infrastructure in the sea,” the chief minister pointed out.
Fadnavis said that two Dutch Government experts had visited Mumbai last month to discuss how the coastal road—cum—metro project could be executed.
Rutte said at the Press conference that as many as 150 Dutch companies were currently doing business across a wide range of industries in Maharashtra. “Worldwide, from Jakarta to Panama to New York, our water experts are advising Governments on how to deal with various challenges. We will now collaborate on Mumbai’s infrastructure challenges,” h said.
“Our endeavour will be to take all stakeholders on board for broad—based consensus for building with nature. Infrastructure and environment can go hand in hand,” Rutte said.
The chief minister said Netherlands government would depute special water envoy Henk Ovink for cooperation in the field of water management.
The visiting Prime Minister said the metro could be connected to the stations of line 3 by underground tunnels with moving walkways, as at the airports.
“There is no need for land acquisition along the coast and the new coastal road would serve as protection against the rising sea level. lagoons between the present coast and the proposed road can be used as storm water buffers to alleviate city floods during monsoon,” Rutte said.