The main deck is being targeted to be completed by November and the connecting ramps on either side by June. If these deadlines are kept, the nearly Rs 18,000-crore Sewri to Nhava Sheva bridge can be opened by the end of year.
The full benefit of the bridge – touted as a game changer in that it will facilitate eastward development – would be felt once two crucial connectors are ready in a few years: The Worli-Sewri connector, which will directly link the Coastal Road with MTHL, and a direct link to the Mumbai-Pune Expressway from the MTHL’s Chirle-end. With 16.5km over water, MTHL will be the longest sea-bridge in India and the 12th longest in the world.
“Ninety-three percent of the bridge has been completed, with surface paving already begun on parts of the deck,” said SVR Srinivas, commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), the implementing authority of the project and the bridge’s owner. A 180-metre stretch of water is all that lies between two sides of a bridge that could transform connectivity in the region. MTHL will be “a gamechanger” for regional development, said Srinivas. Mumbai has mostly expanded northwards because of being surrounded by the sea, he noted. “Now, for the first time, there will be an option to expand eastwards. The link will spur redevelopment of cessed buildings in south Mumbai, besides opening up more employment opportunities as businesses may set up their back offices in Navi Mumbai.”
