Centre clears Rs 23k-cr Mumbai Metro line-3

Line to cover Colaba, bandra, Santacruz Electronics Export Procesing Zone

The Cabinet on Thursday gave clearance for the Rs 23,136 crore Mumbai Metro line-3, while giving the nod to form a joint venture between the Centre and Maharashtra government.

“It would be a 50:50 venture by converting the present special purpose vehicle (SPV). The line would cover Colaba, Bandra and Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone. This would cover a total of 33.5 kilo metres,” finance minister P Chidambaram said on Friday.

The project is scheduled to be completed by March 2019, while work is expected to start by this financial year. The existing SPV, called MMRC, would be converted into a join partnership in line with the Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Kochi metro projects.

Another decison the Cabinet took was approving the proposal by YES Bank to raise Rs 2,650 crore through qualified institutional placement of its equity shares. Through this, foreign equity participation in YES Bank can be increased up to 60 per cent.

The Cabinet cleared the proposal for setting up a national network of laboratories by the health ministry, at a cost of Rs 646 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan. This is to tackle epidemics and natural calamities by setting up 10 regional, 30 state-level and 120 medical college labs across the country. All laborotaries would come under an apex institution.

Giving a much needed relief to the Cotton Corporation of India, the government approved reimbursement of losses amounting to Rs 719.4 crore on minimum support price (MSP) operations in the 2012-13 cotton season. Under the price support system for the 2012-13 cotton season, the government has fixed MSP of long staple and medium staple varieties of raw cotton at Rs 3,900 crore per quintal and Rs 3,600 crore per quintal respectively.

The Cabinet approved the continuation of the National Mission on Food Processing (NMFP) for the remaining of 12th  Five Year Plan Period. The NMFP outlay for 2012-17 has been kept at Rs 1,600 crore consisting of Rs 1,250 crore provided by the Centre and the corresponding state share of Rs 350 crore.  

The other major decisions include proposals for launch services of communication satellites GSAT-15 and GSAT-16. A proposal for signing of a headquarters agreement between the ministry of external affairs and Nalanda university was cleared. This would include hiring of the best academicians from across the world and would confer on the university and members of its academic staff, immunities for efficient functioning. The Cabinet cleared a Rs 19 crore subsidy for inter-island helicopter connectivity in the Lakshadweep islands by Pawan Hans ltd.