The longest sea bridge in India, Atal Setu, which spans from Sewari in south Mumbai to Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai, will open to the public on Friday. The Mumbai-Trans Harbor Link (MTHL), which is 21.8 km long, was supposed to be finished by June 2024. However, according to MMRDA commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee on Thursday, the contractor was asked to work in three shifts, and as a result, the bridge was ready on December 25, six months ahead of schedule. Prime Minister Narender Modi will open the nation’s longest sea bridge, the MTHL, which spans from Sewari in south Mumbai to Nhava Sheva in Navi Mumbai.
Mukherjee told the media, “At first, I forced the workers to work two shifts.” However, we required the workers to come in three shifts after the contractors informed me that they could finish the job by June 2024, or at the latest by March 2024. The prolonged monsoon presented the biggest obstacle. I had given explicit instructions to make sure there wouldn’t be any fatalities while accelerating work. Overall, he stated that seven workers have passed away and that those deaths had been reported prior to my taking over in July 2023. He also mentioned that although the sea link was completed on December 25, it took a few days to receive traffic clearance and the toll gazette, which is a document that notifies the appropriate authorities of toll rates.
The state cabinet cut the one-way toll from Rs 500 per car, which was the amount that MMRDA had proposed, to Rs 250. When asked if this would cause a delay in cost recovery, Mukherjee said, “Let’s see how many cars use this bridge.” Passenger traffic is higher on road projects than on metro projects. Mukherjee went on to say that another first for India will be the open road tolling experiment on MTHL. Barricades are not going to be used in open road tolling. Usually, a boom barrier is present; after the vehicle’s fast tag is read, it is allowed to pass. In this instance, the fast tag consumer is progressive; an image of the vehicle is taken from far away, and the lifting barrier fails to come down.
The commissioner stated that after a month of observation, a decision will be made regarding whether to implement open road tolling in addition to the conventional approach. Numerous planners have stated that MTHL is incomplete without the Sewari-Worli connector, a different project that was only recently added to MTHL. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is addressing the rehabilitation issue as well. March 2025 will mark the completion of the connector. He went on to say that they had partnered with MTHL on a number of projects, including the coastal highway that would connect the new airport to the sea link, extending from Palm Beach Road to Ulwe.
