The country's longest Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) sea route connecting Mumbai to Navi Mumbai has reached the final stage of construction. It was informed that MTHL segment casting work for package-II has been completed. So the overall progress of the project has gone up to 93 per cent.
With this, the bridge, which links Sewri and Nhava Sheva, is expected to be operational by the end of this year, i.e 2023.
According to MMRDA Commissioner SVR Srinivas, a total of 3,132 segment castings were required for Package-II, which has been completed.
Taking it to Twitter, MMRDA mentioned about achieving its another milestone. "Team MMRDA at MTHL Pkg2 accomplished a major feat. They successfully completed entire 3132 segments casting."
Once this 22-km long sea bridge (16 km on sea and about 6 km on land) is operation, the distance and travel time between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai will be reduced by a quarter.
The work of MTHL has been started in four packages. Package-I covers 10.380 km from Sewri (0.00 km) to 10.380 km in the sea. Package-II is from Sewri (10.380 km) to 18.189 km in the sea and Package-III is from Sewri (18.187) km to 21.80 km on land towards Chirle, Navi Mumbai.
Recently MMRDA also received the third installment of INR 1,927 crore for Package III from JICA.
According to MMRDA, three civil work packages were launched on March 23, 2018. Accordingly, 92.60 per cent work has been done in package-1, 92.8 per cent in package-2 and 98.09 per cent in package-3. Last month, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde himself visited the place and inspected the work.
OSD technology
For the first time in the country, a sea bridge is being constructed using OSD technology under excellent engineering. It is a steel deck superstructure, which can carry more loads on the bridge than a concrete superstructure. It is produced in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Myanmar.
Transport system
Package-IV is setting up an intelligent transport system on MTHL Bridge. It entails works related to the intelligent transport system (ITS), toll management system, electrical works, highway illumination system, and construction of toll plazas and administrative buildings including the command control centre.
Connectivity from Panvel-Alibag
Navi Mumbai will get direct connectivity from Mumbai to the extended areas of Pune, Goa, Panvel and Alibaug. Around 70,000 vehicles will travel daily on the 6-lane MTHL on both sides connecting Sewri and Nhava Sheva in Mumbai at a cost of around INR 18,000 crores.