Bandra-Worli sea link to be ready by Jan nex year: Anil

Mumbai, May 15 (UNI) Maharashtra PWD Minister Anil Deshmukh today said the Bandra-Worli sea link will be ready for use by January next year, as more than 78 per cent of the work has been completed.

Speaking to reporters here after a site visit of the Sea link, Mr Deshmukh, who is also Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation chairman, said the 5.7 km bridge will be the first of its kind in the country and is already in one of the ten modern Indian wonders.

''The bridge, once ready, will be the first sea bridge in the country, which will be the longest sea link in the open sea,'' he said.

The sea bridge being built from Bandra to Worli is being constructed at a cost of Rs 1,644 crore, out of which Rs 800 crores has been spent by the government.

According to official estimates, considering the very heavy flow of traffic from Bandra to Worli with more than 1,40,000 vehicles travelling on the route daily, the construction of the sea link will ease the traffic to a large extent.

''The average time taken for a vehicle to travel the same route is around 90 minutes, with 26 signals to be passed and with the use of the bridge will bring down the travel time to less than 7 minutes,'' the Minister said.

The bridge is being built with 2.5 lakh cubic metre of concrete, 40,000 metric tonnes of steel and the height of the bridge from the foundation to the top is equivalent to the height of a 60 storeyed building or 180 metres.

The length of steel wire used for the construction of the bridge is more than the circumference of the Earth, which is 40,07,516 kms.

The sea link will be given on a build operate transfer (BOT) basis for a period of 30 years and the one-way toll rates for the bridge will be Rs 30 for cars, Rs 45 for light commercial vehicles and Rs 60 for the heavy motor vehicles.

The work on bridge, which is underconstruction, started in 2004, even after its sanction in 2001. It had faced many opposition, with many PIL's and petitions being filed against the construction of the bridge.

''The construction work was started after much opposition, tough conditions and lot of difficulty had to be faced in constructing the bridge. In addition, the rough sea at times also delayed the construction work,'' said Mr Deshmukh.

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