Monumental Dream!

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Sorry to spoil the party friends and I hate to sound skeptical but a lot of sensible Mumbai motorists like myself who have been driving almost everyday in the city and suburbs for over a decade and have seen over 50 flyovers coming up in Mumbai since 1997 are not exactly sure what the super excitement over the bandra-worli sea link is all about... Yes its a beautiful landmark, Yes it is the first massive monument coming up in Mumbai making us feel good specially after the gloom of horrible terror attacks of 26/11 and I don't want to be cynical but trust me and mark my words as time will prove that this Rs 1650 crore project will have no impact on Mumbai's traffic congestion in the coming months.. Hardly any time and surely no money will be saved by any car driver!

One reason why many like me are not too excited with this project is the exorbitant cost of this link.. When the project was to be completed in about 600 crores even considering the delays when it was launched why has is cost almost triple of that? Just over a decade ago a 94 kilometer six lane fully concrete expressway was built to connect Mumbai to Pune.. This first access controlled highway has more than 9 huge tunnels including two that are over 1.5 kilometers long it also has several bridges in the ghat section which have required very high concrete pillars ( similar to those used for the sea link) and over 30 bridges that allow vehicles to pass from one side of the e-way to the other where ever there is a small town along the way.. with all these peripheral structures included the 94 km expressway between Mumbai and Pune cost us Rs 1680 crores just a few years ago and today just about 7 kilometer sea way which is only 4 lane wide and is incomplete after 10 years since the project was launched has made the state poorer by Rs1650 crores ! At per kilometer cost of about Rs.266 crores is it really worth it ? Where has all the money really gone ?

The vehicles are going to be thrown from one end of the bridge to the other end in about 10 minutes but with bottlenecks at both ends the time spent at signals at both ends will again be so much that motorists will end up saving only a few minutes of total commute time.. This is what is being experienced already from Wednesday ( 1st July) morning when the link was thrown open for traffic.. True that since its free for the first four days, the traffic is higher than what it will be from next week, but with about 300 cars being added to Mumbai roads every day, its clear that within a few months a stage will be reached when the traffic will be as much as seen on 1st July 09.. So at that point ( just a few months from now) will we again have 3 km long queue at both ends of the link every day? Because while the approach to the link has eight lanes the big problem is that this much hyped link presently has only 4 lanes ( two ways each ) open for traffic ! So there is a big struggle that motorists have to go through at the point where eight lane traffic gets converted into four lane traffic.

I remember the excitement that motorists in Mumbai experienced during the Five year Shiv Sena-BJP rule in Maharashtra when almost every second month a new flyover was inaugurated and "the party" lasted for over two years.. After the number of new flyovers reached 56, the excitement was at its peak, with newspaper carrying articles on how the distance between Bandra to Borivli can be crossed in 30 minutes ! The thrill lasted for just about a year and the drive between these two suburbs ever since takes anything between one and a half hours to two hours or more ! Traffic experts say the same will happen to the sea link but this time not in years but in a matter of months.. The problem of parking space in south Mumbai and noise plus air pollution has not been factored in at all while planning the link..

The whole issue of utility of the project, unreasonable cost escalation and mismanagement is now being covered up by the name controversy started by politicians and media .. This is what our politicians love.. Instead of people asking the right questions about project costs and utility now the whole debate and media attention is diverted to the issue of what name should this link be given.. Perhaps it will take a total collapse of traffic movement and other systems in Mumbai for people, politicians and media to wake up to the real issues and ask the right questions..