World's second longest bridge

THE Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, that found special mention by the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, during his Budget speech, is up and running. Six international consortiums pitted against each other in the RFQ (request for quotation) stage for the first phase implementation of what is billed to become the second longest bridge in the world. Currently, the longest such linkage is the one between Malmo in Sweden and Copenhagen in Denmark.

It will take up to 40 months to complete the engineering and construction work of the trans harbour sea link. As of now, there is an in-principle decision to name the bridge after JRD Tata

The first phase is estimated to cost Rs 4,000 crore and will have a 22.5-km, six-lane sea link connecting Nhava in mainland Mumbai and Sewri in the island city. From Sewri, there will be two `dispersal systems' — essentially overhead bridges across the existing roads. One will be an eight-km bridge connecting Sewri with Colaba and another, a four-km bridge between Sewri and Worli. The Union Government funding is expected to be around Rs 1,000 crore.

The project had attracted the interest of Indian majors such as Reliance Energy, L&T, Gammon India, Shapoorji Pallonji, IL&FS. Among the international heavyweights are Hyundai, Bouygues, Italthai and China Harbour.


This project is seen to be of vital importance with the Mumbai Western Expressway sea link remaining a non-starter as periodic delays have led to high cost escalation. The project cost of Rs 4,000 crore is only for the first phase of the Sewri-Nhava sea link as the second phase envisages a railway link at an outlay of Rs 2,600 crore.

A dream project of Sir J.R.D. Tata, who chaired a committee for its implementation way back in 1981, the trans harbour link may finally get commissioned by 2009.

The six consortiums are:

Reliance Energy Ltd - Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Won the bid)

L&T-Gammon India-Bouygues Enterprises, France

IL&FS-Laing O'Rourke, UK-Macquarie Bank, Australia

Shapoorji Pallonji Construction, with German partner

Italthai Engineering, Thailand-Skalska, Sweden

China Harbour Engineering, Hong Kong