Friday, July 31, 2009

Bandra-Worli Sea link




Mumbaiker had to wait for ten long years to see the Bandra-Worli sea link come up. It did finally got completed on April 21th 2009 before missing the earlier deadlines set twice, first on December 2004 and then on 2007.
The delay had seen the initial cost of the project rise from Rs 434 to a whopping Rs 1634 crore. One of the reasons for the delay was due to the agitation lead by the fishermen community from Mahim village as they felt the link would hamper their catch. Hence the link was re-aligned 150 meters away from the coastline.
The bridge was built to reduce to the travelling distance between Mahim flyover and Love Grove Junction in Worli, which otherwise would take about 35 to 40 minutes without taking in to account the traffic bottleneck during peak hours. Now the 4.7 km Bandra-Worli Sea link will take just 8 minutes. Work for 4 lanes linking it to Nariman point is underway.
The link was inaugurated by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi on 29th June and named it as Rajiv Gandhi Bandra- Worli Sea link. It was thrown open to traffic the next day. The current fares for using the link is Rs 50 one way, Rs 75for return journey for the Cars and Rs 100 for Heavy vehicles. For the first four days the vehicles had a free ride as part of promoting the link. About 45 thousand vehicle is expected to drive through the link every day. Besides people using the link to reach their office faster it is expected that the link would also draw the tourist.
On eve of the opening Mumbaiker was treated to a grand display of laser beam light shows fallowed by spectacle of fire works.
The towering Bandra- Worli link Sea appears like a phoenix rising from the Arabian Sea. This majestic link built from several tonnes of steel and concrete is a piece of engineering genius and an ultimate architectural marvel.
I am blessed to have a partially upper view of the link overlooking from my window flat situated several miles away from the Sea. In the day the long winding handle bars that hold the bridge glints in the Sun and at night the iron and steel joints turns into a spectacle of dazzling lights.
Just before retiring to bed it has become customary to have one last glance at the bridge when the sparkling white lights is turned orange and dim indicating that is time to sleep but I doubt the link ever goes to sleep though with thinning traffic as night life in Mumbai get rolling.
Driving through the Sea link was an exhilarating experience and the pictures say it all.

For documentary image of the link-

1 comment:

Retty Hakim (a.k.a. Maria Margaretta Vivijanti) said...

Nice picture, it looks like a twin bridge...
I've not been blogwalking lately as I was quite busy.
I am impressed that you've got your own contributors' gallery...