Sea bridge may be ready before deadline: Uddhav

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, January 15

The Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL), India’s longest bridge over the sea, may be completed ahead of its 2022 deadline, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray told reporters here today.

Thackeray, who was here to launch the first girder of the structure, said work on the project was proceeding ahead of schedule and it might be completed ahead of the deadline.

More than 10,000 girders are planned to be erected for the project.

The CM said he wanted to see the project site because of environmental concerns. “I wanted to see for myself whether the bridge and the flamingos can co-exist,” Thackeray said of the migratory birds, which come to roost near the venue of the MTHL.

Environmentalists had opposed the project for nearly four decades on the grounds that the habitat of the flamingos would be destroyed by trans-harbour link.

The link will connect Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle on the mainland.

“Once the link is operational, the Navi Mumbai airport will be more accessible to people living in Mumbai,” Thackeray. hoped.

Officials of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is constructing the 22 km-long bridge, say the distance between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai will be reduced from two hours to 30 minutes once the facility becomes operational.

Around 16.5 km length of the bridge will run over the sea.

The Rs 15,000 crore project is being constructed by a consortium of L&T and Tata Projects.

Sanjay Khandare, Additional Commissioner, MMRDA said sound barriers, vision guards and other safety features had been incorporated into the design of the bridge so that migratory birds that come from Siberia are not affected.

Box

Longest in the country

* The Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link will connect Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle on the mainland

* The 22 km-long bridge, 16.5 km of which is over the sea, is being built at a cost of Rs 15,000 crore

* It will reduce travel time between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai from two hours to 30 minutes