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Friday, March 7, 2008

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link: Connecting Mumbai


: It is set to become the new landmark of Mumbai. Travel after its commissioning is all set to change on this stretch of western Mumbai. It is the 4.7 kilometer, eight-lane, Bandra-Worli Sea Link. And it promises to cut travel time between Lovegrove Junction in Worli to Mahim Junction, which is anywhere between 35 minutes to an hour during peak hour traffic at present.
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link is an engineering marvel.
It weighs as much as 50,000 African elephants, the tallest tower equals a 43-storey building and steel wires that could be lined up to form the circumference of the earth have been used to make it.
Putting it all together was a feat in itself.
Each of the concrete girders weigh more than 150 metric tonnes. The massive gantry cranes help move these girders. A 96-wheel trolley helps carry the enormous structure to fit one into another and form a continuation of a bridge that will go on and connect to the other end.
Maharashtra PWD Minister, Anil Deshmukh says, "With aesthetically blended facades, we truly aim to make this a destination' for tourists in Mumbai. We plan to open it by December 2008."
Stuck in busy traffic, 43-year-old investment banker, Mahindraa Keval Ramani is eagerly awaiting the day the bridge shrinks his 45-minute ride to office to about six minutes.
Ramani says, "I just can't wait for this link to open. It'll truly be a link opening more possibilities and give people free time to do more. Imagine, six minutes flat."
Come December 2008, and one side will be opened for use. Six months more and the project should be completed, after which it will then be stretched on, all the way up to Nariman Point.
That though is something Mumbaikars will have to wait a couple of years more for. Till then, it is the Bandra-Worli Sea Link all the way.

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