Chinese contractor with Pak links in fray to build Mumbai coastal road

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 20

Mumbai’s coastal road project faces a major security hurdle after the Shiv Sena-BJP run Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation allowed a Chinese state-owned company, China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd, to be pre-qualified for the bidding process.

A section of the Maharashtra Government has objected to presence of CGGCL on the grounds that it is carrying out construction of defence infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. The company is also involved in several projects associated with the controversial China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

“Allowing Chinese state-owned companies to operate along Mumbai’s coastline poses immense security risks since a number of defence establishments and the country’s nuclear infrastructure are based here,” says a state government official. The contractors building the coastal road will have unfettered access to the area and obtain
sensitive siesmic data of the city’s coastline, say sources here.

For now, the BMC has announced that it would proceed as usual and date for beginning construction on the eight-lane coastal road has been fixed for the last week of April. “We have received five price bids and it will take a month to issue work orders,” Mumbai
Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta told reporters here at the Magnetic
Maharashtra Summit.

However, source said the state government would have to obtain individual security clearances from the defence ministry for the contractors engaged in the project.

Beijing had protested in the past when Chinese companies were prevented from participating in projects such as the Bandra-Worli Sea link and the Mumbai Trans Harbour link.