Mumbai To Get A Second Sea Link Soon

In what comes as great news for commuters in Mumbai, there will soon be a second sea link to cut across traffic. The Bandra-Versova sea link was recently approved for construction by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devender Fadnavis. The sea link will be thrice the length of the present Bandra-Worli sea link, a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.

The sealink will be 17.17 km-long. It will be a northern extension of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, connecting the suburbs of Bandra and Versova with exit points at Otters Club, Bandra, Juhu Koliwada and Nana Nani park, Versova, as reported by Hindustan Times here.

In the competitive bidding process, The Reliance Infrastructure Ltd-Astaldi S.P.A. Consortium has bagged the project for a sum of Rs 6,993.99 crore. Though the project is slotted for completion within five years, during monsoons, works would be completely stalled, giving the consortium barely three-and-half years to make it ready. One can expect the project to be ready by 2023.

The first segment of the sea-link, the famous Bandra-Worli Sea link which was constructed in 2010, is now a popular icon of Mumbai city, often shot in movies with as much prime time as the much-loved Marine Drive. It is a 5.6km stretch made of cables that reduced distance time between Bandra and Worli to just 10 minutes. With the new extension of this coastal road project, one will be able to drive from Bandra West to Versova in Andheri West (and vice versa) in just 15 minutes. Usually, the stretch between the two areas in Mumbai is a very traffic-prone and takes commuters at least 45 minutes.

Along with the approval of the sea-link, two other projects have been given a nod. This includes the construction of a new lane on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and third bridge on Thane creek at Vashi.

Are you looking forward to this as much as we are 

With inputs from PTI