India’s longest sea bridge is likely to open for public in New Year, according to sources. The sea bridge, which connects Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, is already running behind its scheduled inauguration, which was last week of December.
Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) is aiming to keep the inaugural function of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) in January.
The sources also said the Maharashtra government may invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inauguration of the sea link for which preparations are already underway. The bridge will be named after former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The 21.6-km-long bridge will significantly reduce the travel time between the mainland and the island city to just 20-25 minutes. MTHL is not just another sea link that will reduce the distance between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai but it will also get more land to Mumbai city. Mumbai is an island city known for South-North commute and transportation. With MTHL, East-West connectivity will improve, which will help get labour raw material from Navi Mumbai to Mumbai city quickly and save overall cost.
For building MTHL, Orthotropic Steel Deck has been used that enables a distance up to three times longer than normal between two piers, and is used in stretches that are navigational channels for large ships.
The authority received a lot of flak from the state opposition for not completing work in the time. By September, 96% of the sea bridge was completed but the remaining work took around three months.
The Eknath Shinde government is also waiting for the final confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office, the sources said.
Shiv Sena UBT leader and former cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray has been criticising the MMRDA along with the state government for delaying the inauguration of the bridge for public. In his recent post on X (formerly Twitter), Thackeray said The BJP should focus on governance in Maharashtra instead of “event management”. “The MTHL has been ready for over two months but the illegal regime has failed to find VIPs to inaugurate it and seek credit. Why wait for VIPs? Why not open the connector to lakhs of citizens who would benefit from it? This is an absolute mockery of us, citizens, and an insult to Maharashtra that the regime, isn’t opening such crucial services and, keeps the state at the mercy of dates of VIPs.”
In 2014, when the foundation of the project was laid, the estimated cost was Rs 11,000 crore, which rose to Rs 17,800 crore by 2023, a rise of 61.81% till its completion.
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