The Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link
The Mumbai Trans-Harbour link is a 22.1 km, six-lane expressway mega-bridge linking Sweri in Mumbai to Chirle in the Raigad District, being built at a cost of 22,000 crores (2.9$Billion). The bridge will hold the distinction of being the longest bridge in India upon completion and also one of the longest bridges in the world using OSD(Orthotropic Steel Decks)to achieve lengths in excess of 180m without any cable stays and suspension to not restrict the flight path of birds as it is located close to the Sewri Mudflats, which is home to 150 species of migratory birds, especially Flamingoes. The OSD superstructure will be around 4.1km and the width of the superstructure is about 15.8m(31.2m including both sides). The project will consume around 85,000 tonnes of steel i.e. 11 times that of the Eiffel Tower, and around 1 Million Cubic feet of concrete. The steel spans are being fabricated in fabrication workshops in Japan, South Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, Taiwan, etc and the final assembly, load-out, and raising of the deck are being carried out in India. The bridge will facilitate cargo movement between JNPT(Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust) and Mumbai by reducing the distance between Navi Mumbai and Mumbai by two-and-a-half hours. There are further plans to extend it upto the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and the Goa- Mumbai Highway. The bridge will also enable Mumbaikars to reach the Navi Mumbai International Airport(under construction)within 40 mins of driving. A two-way metro link will be built on the bridge as an extension of the line 8A of the Mumbai-Metro to connect the existing Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport to the Navi Mumbai International Airport. This bridge is a plan of the Greater Bay-Area development of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Vision 2034 which aims to decongest Mumbai, link it with its satellite city- Navi Mumbai, and transform the bay-area into a world-class city. The Mumbai Metropolitan Area area contributes around 7% to India’s GDP and has a population of more than 17 million people.
Inception and History
The first concrete attempt to build the sea link was made in 2004, when Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services(IL&FS) submitted a proposal to implement the project on a build, own, operate, and transfer(BOOT) basis. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation(MSRDC) also submitted a counter-proposal. However, the IL&FS proposal was side-lined by the government, for undisclosed reasons. Another attempt was made in 2005 when the MSRDC invited bids for the project. But bids submitted by Consoritums was considered to be unrealistic and hence scrapped. The third attempt was made in 2008 when the Government of Maharashtra invited fresh bids for Construction. However, none of the thirteen previously interested companies submitted bids. The media squarely blamed the political stalemate in the then governing NCP(Nationalist Congress Party) and the INC(Indian National Congress) coalition for hindering the development of Mumbai. The fourth attempt also failed and then it was decided by MMRDA(Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) to execute the project on a PPP(Public-Private Partnership)module with 80% of the project being funded by JICA on a soft-loan of 0.1% interest P.A. Then MMRDA invited request for qualifications (RFQ) for civil construction of three packages — a 10.38-kilometer-long bridge section across the Mumbai Bay and Sewri interchange, a 7.807-kilometer-long bridge section across Mumbai Bay and Shivaji Nagar, near Gavan interchange and a 3.613-kilometer-long viaduct including interchanges at SH 52, SH54, and NH 4B near Chirle, Navi Mumbai. The MMRDA received 11 pre-qualification bids each for the first and second package, and 17 bids for the third package. The agency stated that a single party would not be awarded the first and second packages together, although any other combination of the three packages would be permitted. The first package is being constructed now by the consortium of Larsen and Toubro and IHI corporation, the second package is being constructed by Tata Projects Limited and Daewoo E&C, and the third package is being constructed by Larsen and Toubro.
Construction Update
As of August 28, 27% of the work has been completed on the bridge. Pre-Fabricated Girders are being laid at a fast pace. The parts of the steel OSDs have started arriving at the JNPT port as of October 3. The progress was somewhat slowed by the Lockdown induced by Coronavirus Pandemic but the MMRDA is hopeful of completing the project by mid-2022. A 5km vision barrier was later planned to be installed to restrict sight of the secretive BARC(Bhaba Atomic Research Centre) after concerns were raised owing to close vicinity.
Ecology Conservation- Mumbai gets its first Flamingo Sanctuary
The Maharashtra Forest Department also agreed to declare a 10km long stretch of mangroves and mudflats between the Vashi and Airoli creeks on the Thane creek a protected Flamingo sanctuary in 2015 in a quid-pro-quo with the bridge passing by the Sewri Mudflats. According to N. Vasudevan, chief conservator of forests in the Mangrove Cell, “The notification declared the northern part of Thane creek as a Wildlife Sanctuary under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.” The sanctuary occupies 1,690 hectares, which includes 896 hectares of mangroves and 794 hectares of the adjacent water body. The Sewri-Mahul mudflats have been identified as an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA)since the area accommodates 12–15 percent of the entire population of lesser flamingos Phoeniconaias minor in South Asia, according to a 2008 study. This has a near-threatened status, according to the IUCN Red List. The bridge will have a 3km sound barrier installed near Sewri to minimize vehicular noise for the Flamingoes and the Bird-Habitat zone.
The Chattrapati Shivaji Memorial
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Memorial project to be built at a cost of Rs 3000 crore ran into hurdles after SC issued a notice after hearing a petition filed by Conservation Action Trust (CAT) against the statue of the Maratha warrior king.
In the letter written by PWD to the private company constructing the statue, the authority cited the SC notice and its directive to the state government counsel to stop the construction work until the matter is heard.
Earlier, a special bench constituting the Chief Justice of India Rajan Gogoi and Justice SK Kaul admitted a petition filed by the environmentalist Debi Goenka seeking a stay on the construction of the memorial.
The construction work on the 212-metres Chhatrapati Shivaji Memorial statue in the Arabian Sea off Mumbai coast has stopped after the recent Supreme Court notice.
