WATER WAY

THE MUCH AWAITED BANDRA WORLI SEA LINK PROJECT HAS TRIUMPHED DESPITE FACING MANY HURDLES. THE SEA LINK WILL BE OPENED TO PUBLIC TODAY, REPORTS RAHUL KHILNANI

    Mahim Causeway was the only link connecting the island to the western suburbs till date. It is estimated that almost 1, 40,000 vehicles use this route every single day during peak hours, crossing over 23 signals to reach Worli, causing incessant traffic jams. This, however, is all set to change as the much awaited Bandra Worli Sea Link (BWSL) will open to public today.
    This link aims at alleviation of traffic congestion in Mahim-Dadar-Worli areas besides providing relief at Mahim Causeway.
    The construction of this link, which was conceived in the Wilbur Smith study in 1962 and subsequently recommended
by traffic studies carried out by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, forms the first phase of the Western Freeway extending from Bandra to Nariman point. The project was finally implemented by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation.
    BWSL begins at the Mahim Interchange and joins the Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan road. The link connects Bandra to Worli sea face by a 4 km long bridge in the sea and an approach road about 1.6 km long on the Bandra side. The bridge includes two cable stayed bridges of lengths 500 m at Bandra with its pylons rising to a height of 128 m above sea level and a 350 m bridge on the Worli side.
    Apart from this the link also boasts of a modern toll plaza of 16 lanes.
    This colossal project costs around Rs 1,634 crores and aims to save fuel to the tune of Rs 260 crore annually.
SALIENT FEATURES
First such sea link in India First Cable Stayed Bridge of 500 mtr length in India 5.6 km long bridge Four lanes on each side Modern toll plaza Separate lane for BEST buses in each direction Height of the main pylon is 130 mtr, which is equivalent to a 60 storied building Weight of the bridge is equivalent to 50,000 African elephants, each weighing at least 5 tones each. 20,00,000 cement bags were used for this bridge The total length of the bridge is approximately equivalent to the circumference of Earth, around 40,000 km 35,000 M tonnes of steel was used in the project It is noted as one of the miracles out of ten by American Journal Business Week The bridge will be extended from Worli to Haji Ali and then to Nariman point. Constructed by contractor M/s Hindustan Construction Co for MSRDC The Hercules, one of the largest water cranes in the world, was used during the final phase of this project.

We have worked on the sea link in such a way that it will be benificial to one an all even in the future
- Er T Raman Executive Engineer, MSRDC

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BANDRA-WORLI SEALINK’S READY TO ROLL

FINALLY, YOU CAN ZIP ACROSS THE SEA

NO MATTER how dramatic the opening ceremony for the Bandra-Worli Sealink, it's unlikely to match the drama that surrounded the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932. The physical prominence of bridges and their (usual) utility make their opening ceremonies irresistible for grandstanding politicians, but on this occasion their glory was stolen.
    Just as Jack Lang, the premier (chief minister) of New South Wales, was about to cut the ribbon, a man in military uniform charged on a horse and cut the ribbon and declared the bridge open in the name of the people of Australia. Immediately arrested, he confessed to being the member of an ultra right-wing paramilitary group that was opposed to Lang's leftist policies, and was also angry that the King of England had not been called to open the bridge. One can imagine sundry local chauvinists kicking themselves for not thinking of doing the same.
    Such theatrics should not be surprising; the symbolism offered by bridges is too tempting to be ignored. Mythology is replete with symbolic bridges to be crossed, like the Zoroastrian bridge over boiling metal that all souls must cross, with the crossing becoming harder or easier according to their load of sins. The European Union made full use of bridges when the euro was launched; the first images on the notes were of bridges, partly as rhetoric about bridges between countries, but perhaps also to emphasise them as images of stability over the rough water of financial turmoil. Occasionally, the symbolism can be charming, like the folk tradition of Ram thanking the squirrel that helped build his bridge to Lanka by stroking it, and forever leaving the mark of his fingers on its back.
    More often though, the symbolism of bridge openings is sinister. The water spirits, which must submit to the bridge being built, demand a sacrifice, and these have been made. When an ancient bridge in Germany was demolished, the skeleton of a child was found in its piers. The nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is Falling Down' is conjectured to be an echo of this, an unsettling thought as we watch our children catch the last one through their bridge of arms. Bridges stand over the untamed forces of the natural world, and these are prone to demand their tribute, either as the bridge is being built (they are notoriously dangerous for workmen), or after in the form of suicides that are always drawn to bridges.
    Rudyard Kipling used this idea to powerful effect in his story 'The Bridge Builders'. In it, a British engineer of a bridge over the Ganges is caught in a flood that threatens to demolish his work. In an opium-fuelled daze he imagines Ganga, in the shape of a great river crocodile, demanding the bridge fall, and the great Indian gods — Shiva, Indra, Kali, Hanuman — debating it, before Krishna comes to tell them that they can't halt progress and that the bridge will stand. Sealink set to change the lives of local fishermen
    IT IS typical Kipling, combining a positive imperial message, with a visionary understanding of the eternal forces that underlie the vision of order that the bridge represents.
    Not surprisingly, most bridge opening ceremonies extol order. Some elements are common: long speeches, the presence of presidents, kings and queens, musical tributes. Flotillas of boats, usually accompany openings, to underline how their element, water, is being superseded by the earth which the bridge represents. Sometimes people are allowed special permission to cross on foot, but the Sealink's makers seem adamant about never allowing walkers on the bridge.
    Runners might be different, since apparently, there's a plan to take the Mumbai marathon over the bridge. This was done for the opening of the Oresund Bridge which connects Sweden and Denmark, the longest border bridge crossing in the world. A special half-marathon was held to include the bridge's 7,845 metres, the longest road-rail bridge in Europe. An ever more testing crossing was done on the Brooklyn Bridge, not exactly at its opening, but a week after, when rumours spread that it was about to collapse, causing a stampede in which 12 people were killed. To reassure the people, the great circus impresario PT Barnum led a parade of 21 of his elephants across the bridge!
    Fireworks are common for the practical reason that bridge spans provide particularly good platforms for fireworks that can be seen by people on the shore. Some bridges are known for their fireworks, like the Sydney display, which traditionally ushers in the first big chronological New Year celebration of the year, seen on TV screens around the world, as other places prepare for midnight. But there also seems to be an elemental appropriateness of using such a tremendous display of fire to consecrate a symbol that pits two other elements, earth and water, against each other.
    What would have been appropriate for the Sealink, other than the standard laser and firework display that took place? Perhaps, a moment of triumph should have been allowed for the most unlikely victors in its building — the small fishing community of Worli. Thanks to their objections, the whole structure was radically changed, to raise the bridge enough to let their boats through. And rather than landing at the logical place, at the Worli end of Mahim Bay, in the middle of their village, the bridge now shoots past, at immense added expense, to jut into the sea, and then turn abruptly to meet the road on Worli Seaface.
    The actual benefit to the fishermen is somewhat ambiguous. The bridge's piers have probably ruined their fishing, and their lands will probably soon be overrun by entrepreneurs eager to cash in on the bridge view with hoardings or sea-facing restaurants. Whether their lives will benefit or not from this is debatable, but it's unlikely ever to be the same again. Perhaps after Mrs Gandhi opened the bridge, the fisherfolk could have been allowed one special trip across to savour this peculiarly Mumbai solution, muddled and costly, replete with murky monetary schemes, and yet somehow impressive in the end.
    vikram.doctor@timesgroup.com 

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