The 22-kilometer Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, also known as the Atal Setu Nhava Sheva Sea Link, was officially opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday. It is the nation’s longest sea bridge. The journey between Sewri and Chirle will take less than 20 minutes thanks to the bridge, which was initially conceived of six decades ago.
The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), which spans the Arabian Sea and runs 22 km, is a twin-carriageway, six-lane bridge that connects Sewri on the island of Mumbai to Chirle in the Raigad district on the mainland.
The MTHL consists of a 16.5 km maritime link and two 5.5 km long land viaducts at either end.
The project’s goals are to advance the economic growth of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, which includes the districts of Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and Raigad, and to increase connectivity within it. By significantly reducing travel time, the MTHL will improve connectivity between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and relieve traffic on the current route across the Vashi bridge.
The American construction consulting firm Wilbur Smith Associates first proposed the notion of a bay crossing connecting Mumbai to the mainland in 1963, but no further action was taken. The idea was brought back to life in the late 1990s, and in 2006 the first tenders were released.
Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure won the contract in February 2008, after he pledged to use a public-private partnership (PPP) approach to build the then Rs 6,000 crore bridge and return its construction costs in nine years and eleven months.
However, Ambani left the project a few months later. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was replaced as the nodal agency by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) after several fruitless bidding rounds.
After MMRDA and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) reached a deal, the project eventually got underway. JICA agreed to pay for 80% of the project’s costs, with the remaining 20% coming from the state and federal governments.
Work started in early 2018 after the transaction and tendering were ultimately finalised in December 2017. The project has cost a total of Rs 21,200 crore, of which Rs 15,100 is a loan from JICA.
The MTHL will reduce the average travel time between Sewri and Chirle from the current 61 minutes to less than 16 minutes, per a study done by MMRDA and JICA. The link is anticipated to be used by over 40,000 cars per day during its first year of operation (2024).
It is anticipated that the project will enable Navi Mumbai to become more economically integrated with Mumbai, with benefits also accruing to Panvel, Alibaug, Pune, and Goa.
It will greatly enhance communication between South Mumbai and the Navi Mumbai International Airport, which is now under construction, the Mumbai-Goa Highway, the Mumbai Pune Motorway, and the main hinterland in general. Additionally, it will make Jawaharlal Nehru Port more accessible.
Although the project is clearly going to help the megacity and its surrounding neighbourhoods grow and prosper, it is unclear how normal commuters who travel between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai on a daily basis can gain from it.
The landing points of the bridge on the mainland, Shivaji Nagar in Ulwe and Chirle, are more than 10 km away from the main residential areas of Vashi, Nerul, Sanpada, Juinagar, and Seawoods, which will increase the cost of commuting. The Trans Harbour Link has a high one-way toll of Rs 250.
There haven’t been any announcements on public transit amenities on the bridge yet, such as buses in their own lane.
