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A proud landmark

With the inauguration of the picturesque Bandra-Worli sea link on June 30, more than four decades after it was first mooted, Mumbai’s landscape has acquired an undeniable facelift. This is India’s longest sea link, the third of its kind after Pamban Railway Bridge connecting Mandapam and the island of Rameswaram and the Indira Gandhi Bridge (built in 1988) that runs parallel to the Pamban Bridge. If the 2.06 km Pamban lift bridge with two leaves was a structural wonder when it was inaugurated in 1914, the 5.6 km Bandra-Worli link with its cable-stayed bridge is an impressive engineering feat in recent times. Legal hurdles, environmental issues, and cost and time overruns had raised doubts and concern about the project. But today this Rs.1600 crore link has undoubtedly become the new icon of the city. The link is meant to be extended to connect Worli and Haji Ali in the next phase, enhancing mobility further within the heavily congested city. The idea of the sea link is to relieve pressure on Mumbai’s overladen roads and improve connectivity between the Western suburbs and Central Mumbai. The highlight of this project is that it is designed for the vehicles to travel at 100 km per hour, reducing the travel time from 40 minutes to seven and thus saving on the vehicle operating costs. At times when cities are often reminded about keeping their commitment to reducing carbon emissions, such savings are most urgently required.

To the crawling city, this link is indeed a great convenience. But to ensure its full effectiveness, it is important to ease congestion in the approach roads to the link. It would defeat the purpose if the high speed potential of the link is wasted because of traffic jams on the roads that lead to the bridge. This yet again proves that spectacular solutions need to be coordinated and supported by a well developed road network and a comprehensive traffic and transportation plan. Roads cannot be the only focus of an efficient traffic plan. Travel characteristics and vehicular flows are influenced by the other parameters of city planning. The National Transport Policy has emphasised that land-use and transportation must be integrated to minimise travel distance and a sustained solution can be arrived at by promoting public transport. It is promising to note that the Bandra-Worli link when it is fully operational will have two of its eight lanes dedicated to buses. The next step would be to implement a well thought-out and comprehensive plan for the city as well as the region which will ensure that such imaginative and promising initiatives as the Bandra-Worli sea link do not peter out.

Corrections and Clarifications

"A proud landmark" (Editorial, July 2, 2009) referred to the Pamban bridge as a lift bridge with two leaves. The Pamban bridge refers to both the road bridge and the cantilever railway bridge, though primarily it means the latter. The railroad bridge is a still-functioning double-leaf bascule bridge section that is raised to let ships pass under.

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