CM inaugurates ‘bow-string’ arch bridge connecting Coastal Road, Sea Link

Speaking during the inauguration, CM Shinde said the project will reduce travel time between Marine Drive and Bandra, which currently takes up to one hour, to a mere 10 minutes.

“Earlier, vehicles used to run bumper-to-bumper on this route. But now, we will travel faster, people will save time, people will save fuel, pollution will be reduced, and it will be signal-free. When we opened this span last time, we had said that on September 15, we will open it. Today is the 12th, we did this before time, this is our commitment,” said Shinde.

Taking potshots at the Opposition, Fadnavis said the project had remained stalled for nearly 25 years, during the continuous tenures of the Congress and Sharad Pawar in the central and the state governments.

Fadnavis told reporters, “The chief minister used to go to Delhi but permission was not granted. After Modiji’s government came, the Mahayuti government came to the state. I held five meetings in Delhi for one-and-a-half years, and after that, we got all the permissions. After getting all the permissions, the work started.”

While the north-bound portion of the arch-bridge will allow vehicles to ply through from Friday, senior officials from the BMC said that the point of entry for the south-bound vehicles travelling towards South Mumbai will remain unchanged from Worli and Haji Ali.

Currently, the coastal road is operational only till Worli between 7 am and 11 pm on weekdays.

The total length of the bow-string bridge is 827 metres, encompassing 699 metres over the sea and 128 metre-long access road.

Amid contention raised by fisherfolk, the construction of the bridge had become a major roadblock for the ambitious coastal road project. Even as the BMC had recommended a gap of 60 metres for safe passage, the fishing community had demanded that the gap between the pillars on which the bridge has been erected should be 200 meters.

Following which the fisherfolk went on a strike and the BMC had to revise the plan and had to remove one pillar to provide a wider navigation span to the boats. Since the engineers cannot erect an additional pillar and the distance between the existing mono-piles have increased owing to removal of one pillar, the civic body resorted to the design of a ‘Bow-String’ girder bridge.

The two girders of the arch bridge weigh around 4,000 metric tonnes (MT) and have an average length of 140 meters. While the first girder of the bow-string bridge was launched on April 26 this year, the second girder was launched a month later, making way for the launch of the balance works, such as concretisation and waterproofing.