Bandra-Worli Sealink - An Indian Achievement or a Hoax?

On Wednesday morning, July 1 of 2009, the Indian Government finally rolled out what is officially called “Rajiv Gandhi Setu”. More formally known as the “Bandra-Worli Sea link”, it is believed to be one of the most complex and advanced construction endeavor ever in India. In simpler terms, this Sea-link is a 8-lane cable supported bridge which is built over the sea to join two of the most busy areas of Mumbai to provide ease to traffic congestion problems.

The History

Till this bridge was envisioned and even constructed, the only link that could connect the Western suburbs of Mumbai to the main city was the Mahim Causeway, which is a very old link (made sometime in 19th Century). The problem faced was that the existing Causeway is not scalable to meet the needs of the ever-growing traffic in Mumbai and there is very heavy congestion especially in the peak hours. The estimated numbers show that more than 120000 cars use this way for daily commuting and the stretch of 7.7 km from Mahim to Worli takes about 40 minutes. The vision was to reduce this time in commuting to just around 7 minutes. Moreover, having a parallel route would also divide the traffic and hence reduce the congestion.

Finally, in 1999, Shiv Sena laid the foundation of this ambitious project, which the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation awarded to Hindustan Construction Company with the initial deadline of Dec 2004 (which was later revised twice to Dec 2007 and then Dec 2008). However, the construction was stalled due to varied reasons like lack of funds, payment disputes, opposition from fishermen groups and other changes in design structure and finally, it is now partially finished after one decade of long wait in 2009.

Facts and Benefits
The length of the bridge is an astounding 4.7 km over the sea-surface and the weight is almost 670000 tonnes. The massive structure is held together by main towers of height 126 metres, which is roughly 43 storey (floors).

The bridge is going to have very hi-tech features like automated toll-collection lanes to reduce the turn-around-time and the vehicles using the bridge will be able to avoid 29 traffic lights. There will be automated systems which authenticate the toll pass in a matter of seconds and the bridge is also installed with 12 camera, which will be used to monitor the movement and ensure safety on the bridge. With an estimated traffic of 125000 vehicles, the bridge is going to save almost Rs 100 crore annually from transportation front alone.

The 8-lanes on the bridges (once all are functional), will not only reduce the traffic in the Mahim causeway, but will also add significantly to the Tourism image of the city, especially with the concepts of open-bus/cars giving the passengers a cool drive over the sea. On the same lines, the bridge is going to be fitted with various fountains and plantations which will beautify the jewel on the crown like bridge in the city of Mumbai.

The Criticism

Instead of just saying good things about the bridge and saying that India is doing great, we should also see some issues where things could have been better.

The initial cost of the bridge was estimated to 300 crore and the completion in 2004, however, the actual cost is now estimated to have crossed 1600 crores (almost 5 times the estimation) and this number dwarfs the amount of savings and hence the benefits of the sea-link by a great deal.

Also, according to various traffic experts, though the bridge will reduce the travel time from 40 minutes to 7 minutes, this duration is just from the end points of the sea-link. Since the impact and the handling of the traffic congestion at the Worli end is not thorough of yet, the actual travel time will be as high as almost 25 minutes, which kind of negates the very purpose of the bridge.

The last and surely not the least point that we have to consider here is that a toll of Rs 50 is going to be collected for each one-way trip on the sea-link, which per se, is going to dissuade many of the commuters, unless they see a real improvement in time.

Final Verdict

I feel that though the Bandra-Worli sea link project is hyped so much about and understandably it is a massive project which gives us Indians a sense of satisfaction. However, though a step in the right direction, the sea-link doesn’t live upto the expectations. There is still a lot to be learnt from this project and improve before we can truly proclaim that we too can have and build “World-class” infrastructure.