Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), the longest sea bridge in India, has reached 84 per cent progress.
Connecting Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, MTHL reduces the travel time between South Mumbai and Navi Mumbai to just 20 minutes from the present two hours.
The link will also provide direct access to Nhava Sheva Port, Mumbai-Goa Highway, Mumbai-Pune Expressway and the Navi Mumbai International Airport.
The latest estimated completion time is September 2023. All piling-related work for the 22-km long bridge is complete, and road surfacing will begin in February 2023.
“We have completed 84 per cent of the project, up from 54 per cent in June 2021,” metropolitan commissioner SVR Srinivas told The Times of India.
Work on the project, a 22-km-long sea-link connecting Mumbai with its satellite city Navi Mumbai, got off to a start in April 2018 with the contractor conducting soil testing in the Nhava Sheva creek.
The project’s cost jumped from Rs 4,500 crore in 2005 to Rs 9,360 crore in 2013 and Rs 11,000 crore in 2014. Now, it is pegged at Rs 17,800 crore.
The Japanese International Cooperation Agency is financing 85 per cent of the project. The loan has been offered with a 10-year grace and a 30-year repayment period.
Then Devendra Fadnavis’s government’s war room revived the project in 2015. Two crucial state and central clearances were obtained between November 2015 and January 2016. In February 2016, funding from JICA was secured subject to design changes and construction standards. The central government readily stood as a counter-guarantee for the JICA loan.
The JICA agreement with MMRDA for the funding was signed in May 2016, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the project in December 2016.