Sea Link In Mumbai (Bandra-Worli)

 The Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai, India's first cable-stayed road bridge across the sea. In fact, it is a classic example of how not to do city or project planning. What was supposed to be a Rs 300-crore project completed in 2004 actually cost Rs 1,600 crore and was completed five years late. Supposedly it will reduce the 40-minute car journey from Bandra to Worli to seven minutes, Mumbai will get a new landmark with the completion of the work on the 5.8 km long Bandra-Worli Sea Link project. The project is a 8-lane, cable-stayed bridge with pre-stressed concrete viaduct approaches, which will link Bandra and the western suburbs of Mumbai with Worli and central Mumba, but in practice it will lead to traffic bunching at both ends of the link, and become a nightmare during rush hour.

Mumbai needs at least one and preferably two ring roads, partly elevated and partly offshore, be linked by a trans-harbour bridge to Navi Mumbai, and have no traffic signals so that traffic can move at high speed, getting off at various exit ramps into different sections of the city. Beijing has seven such ring roads, but India has none.

The Bandra Worli sea link project has certain unique features. These include:--An 8-lane bridge with 2 lanes dedicated for buses.--Unique bridge design for the Link Bridge to emerge as a land mark structure in the city.--Single tower supported 500 metre long cable-stayed bridge at Bandra Channel and twin tower supported 350 m cable-stayed bridge at Worli Channel for each carriageway.--Modern toll plaza of 16 lanes with automated toll collection system.--An intelligent bridge with state-of-art systems for traffic monitoring, surveillance, information and guidance, instrumentation, emergency support, etc.--Development of promenade and landscaping to enhance the environment.

The Bandra-Worli link is a short stretch that does not even cover the western shore, as envisaged two decades ago. It took ages because of design changes and payment disputes. The trans-harbour bridge creek has been bid for twice yet not awarded to anybody. Nobody takes a holistic view of the city's traffic needs because of the politics and money involved in alignments, land acquisition and contract placements.

The Maharashtra government has announced the extension of the sea link by another 3.6 km up to Haji Ali at an additional cost of Rs 1,200 crore.Length of the steel wires used is equal to the circumference of the earth.Weight of the Sealink Bridge is equivalent to the weight of 50,000 African elephantsHeight of the cable-stay towers equals that of a 43 storied building and the length of the Sealink Bridge is 63 times the height of the Qutub Minar.

Nevertheless, some people celebrate the Sea Link saying something is better than nothing: "Why expect too much, we are like that only." Yet plenty of things in India are world class. Infosys and TCS could not have got where they are today by doing projects five years late and at five times the estimated cost. We have world class manufacturing companies like Tata Steel and Bharat Forge.

It is simply not true that Indians cannot do things well. The first step towards holistic town planning may be legislative change that gives cities strong mayors with substantial budgetary resources, who can carry through major initiatives. We do not have to be quite as good as China, which has built seven sea links in the last six years. But we can surely do better than the Bandra-Worli project.