Click to play videoNew Delhi: The newly inaugurated Bandra-Worli Sea Link in Mumbai opened to the public on Wednesday morning but Day One witnessed three-km-long traffic jams at both ends of the bridge.
Billed as an engineering marvel at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore, India's first sea bridge promised to cut travel time by 80 per cent, bypassing 23 traffic signals that commuters have to otherwise endure in Mumbai.
With excitement running high in the city, Mumbaikars were seen driving to the bridge since midnight but had to go back disappointed as the link opened seven hours later.
There will be no toll on the bridge until July 5 but after that commuters will have to pay Rs 50 for each trip.
High drama was also witnessed under the sea link as a police boat with nine men on board got stuck between the bridge pillars.
The boat, deputed for UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi's visit on Tuesday evening was snagged in a fishing line between two pillars.
The Coast Guard rescued the boat with the four policemen and helped the crew to fix the engine. Meanwhile, local fishermen complained that pillars of the bridge are too close for a boat to move safely between them.
The Bandra-Worli link is a short stretch that does not cover the western shore, as envisaged two decades ago. Experts also say there were innumerable design changes and payment disputes which led to the delay.
The initial hiccups are leading many to ask if the bridge is truly an engineering marvel or a traffic nuisance.
Bridge inaugurated amid much fanfare
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the gleaming new $325 million bridge, which was conceived over four decades ago. She was the first person to go up and down the BWSL in her motorcade.
The bridge is to be named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan announced on Tuesday.
This is the most prestigious project for the Maharashtra State Road Development Corp (MSRDC) in over a decade after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway and is expected to cut travel from 60 minutes to around six minutes from Bandra in northwest Mumbai to Worli in the south.
The 5.6-km bridge on the Arabian Sea cost Rs 1,634-crore and the authorities hope some 150,000 vehicles will use it each day for a toll that ranges between Rs 50 and Rs 100 per trip depending on the size of the automobile.
Those present at the inauguration included Chief Minister Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, central Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. Maharashtra strongman and central Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was present at one of the inaugural functions though not at the site.
Mumbaikars, including a galaxy of actors, corporate honchos and the average commuter, were visibly excited during the inauguration. Huge crowds thronged both ends of the BWSL – at Bandra and Worli.
The bridge has surpassed all other projects of the state-run MSRDC in terms of its sheer beauty, grandeur and the attention it has grabbed from the whole country in the past few months.
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