I had an opportunity to visit the sophisticated, eight-lane roadway across the sea linking Bandra in the west to Worli in the south of Mumbai under construction. The Bandra-Worli Sea Link Project (BWSL) was conceived to speed up traffic between Bandra and Worli presently passing through the crowded Mahim, Shivaji Park, Siddhi Vinayak Mandir, Lower Parel and Worli. With the increasing vehicle population, the 8 km distance takes around 60 minutes causing humungous losses in terms of time and energy. The sea link of 5.6 km reduces the travel time to less than 8 minutes!

The sea link project was divided in to four packages ultimately planning to link Bandra with Nariman Point at the southern end. The present Bandra-Worli link is package IV executed by Hindustan Construction Co Ltd and its foreign partner, China Harbour Engineering Corporation with the British Dar Consultants as engineering consultants.

The project was conceived initially at a cost of around Rs. 300 crore; it has suffered a delay of over five years due to environmental clearances, re-alignments and several changes in design, including raising the height, to meet with the livelihood issues of the fisherfolk. Being the first project of its size and complexity, there was also the time involved in assembling sophisticated equipment and learning the intricacies of deep sea piling. These have resulted in a sizable escalation in cost; when the project is completed in all aspects, the cost is estimated at around Rs. 1800 crore.

The project cost is expected to be recovered by an 'intelligent' toll system. With the dense traffic intensity of around 120,000 passenger car unit movements per day, which is increasing by the day, even this escalated cost is estimated to be recovered in less than 10 years. The toll is indicated at Rs. 50 per trip. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, which has to its credit the speedy execution of several other sophisticated road projects, including the Mumbai-Pune expressway, should now be ready to extend the sea link southwards from Worli to Nariman Point and Cuffe Parade. Without this extension the Worli end of the present phase is bound to get choked even more than at present. The task of extending this project through more crowded south Bombay sea face is beset with greater challenges. Escalation in costs would also be a serious factor. But the positive aspect is the experience gained in constructing the sea link and the ability to mobilize sophisticated equipment for such construction.

Mumbai has even more ambitious plans to link the crowded southern tip of the island with New Mumbai across the sea; this has huge potential for taking development in the form of sea and airports, power and water supply systems and large new habitations.

The project is mammoth: a single tower supports 500 metre long cable stay bridge at Bandra and twin towers support a 350 metre cable stay bridge at the Worli end for each carriage way; apart from engineering excellence these are also visual delights.

The Bandra cable stay section spans 600 m in length and a height of 126 m equivalent to a 43 storied building. The cable stay system comprises 2250 km of high strength galvanized steel wires which support the cable stay bridge weighing 20,000 tonnes. The first ever open sea bridge of its kind, the BWSL is one of the most complex and advanced construction projects in India.

The service deck underneath the road can in itself permit vehicle movement! The course of BWSL will have interesting lessons for Chennai presently working on a 47 km high speed elevated corridor along river banks and two ring roads.