Sea bridge project nears completion

Team Blitz India

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has made significant strides in the construction of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) Road, with over 96 per cent of the project now complete. Work is in full swing to meet the deadline of December.

As per MMRDA report, all the ramps at Sewri Interchanges, which link local roads on either side, including Sewri, Shivajinagar, and Chirle, are now complete, and bituminous work on these roads is progressing as planned. The process of appointing a contractor for a connector between Chirle and the Expressway is underway.

Seventy-eight out of a total of 130 CCTV poles have been erected, and the construction of the operation and control centre is progressing well. The MMRDA has also reported that 50 per cent of the toll infrastructure work has been completed.

The MTHL Road is a 22-kilometer sea bridge, comprising a 16.5-kilometer sea portion and a 5.5-kilometer land portion, connecting the island city to the mainland. Once complete, it will be India’s longest sea bridge and will accommodate approximately 70,000 vehicles daily.

During the peak of construction, around 14,000 skilled workers were employed. The construction of the Sewri side of the bridge and the land-related work was entrusted to a consortium of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Japan’s IHI Infrastructure Systems. The Navi Mumbai side of the bridge was assigned to DaewooTata. Groundwork commenced in April 2018.

However, the project cost escalated from Rs 4,500 crore in 2005 to Rs 17,843 crore in 2018, with approximately 85 per cent of the funding coming through a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).