Click to play videoMumbai: The Bandra Worli sea link is good news for daily commuters as it will save over half an hour of travel time for them.
However, the local fishermen community in the area is upset with the concrete marvel in sea.
"We can't travel on it. We will get no benefit out of it but there will be a lot of problems for us because of it," says fisherman Krishnachand Shantaram.
The fishermen show the CNN-IBN team accompanying them on one of their fishing trips empty fishing nets pointing out that there were no fish in the sea near the bridge.
"You see yourself. Do you see any fish over here? Earlier we use to get a lot. Now there is nothing," fisherman Ashok Kohli points out.
The fishermen are not able to find a catch even seven to 10 kilometers off shore. They fishermen claim that after the construction of the sea link, their average catch dipped by 60 per cent even though they now venture much further into the sea then they did earlier.
The reason, they say, is the disturbance to the seabed from the construction of the pillars of the sea link.
They have to also manoeuvre their boats more carefully through the pillars as a little error of judgment would result in the boat crashing into the pillars damaging the boat.
The fishermen had demanded the gap between the pillars should be wider
Even, environmentalists claim the sea link has adversely affected the flourishing colonies of fishes and other marine life near the coastline and that it has also drastically affected the tidal wave movement near the Bandra-Worli sea face, thereby irreparably damaging the city's storm water drainage system.
"The sea tides now cannot enter Mahin Creek. They are attacking west coast of Mumbai and entering through storm water drains and moving ahead beneath the surface upto 2.5 kms," claims environmentalist Girish Raut.
Even as Mumbaikars welcome their new landmark, the Koli fishermen prepare to live with the concrete monster in their backyard. It is a monster that is threatening to take away their livelihood.
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