Worli Haji Ali Sea Link

Considered to be an integral part of the Western Freeway project in Mumbai, the Worli – Haji Ali Sea Link will be a delight to watch and travel, with the city’s traffic congestion being reduced to a bare minimum. However, this bridge has not yet come up and discussions are still underway to get the work started on this bridge. Since there is a huge financial support that is needed the scheme is still being considered and studied in details by many before the actual signing off happens. There have been a couple of discussions that have been concluded in the positive side and there is a good chance that the work on the highway could be started off soon.

Geography

The Worli – Haji Ali Sea Link is a bridge that is supposed to be built over the sea and will have the privilege of being the only bridge of that sort. This bridge is aimed at connecting the towns of Worli in Mumbai and the island of Haji Ali which is considered to be a tourist spot that is perennially crowded.  This bridge, like most other bridges is an innovative idea of reducing the traffic congestion that is so prone in Mumbai. This bridge when constructed could even become world famous and the only catch is that it has to cross the stages of the discussions and get constructed to become a landmark in the city of Mumbai.

Description of the Bridge

Specifications

This bridge was supposed to be constructed at a length of 3.4 kilometers with the complete stretching covering the Mahim Bay built over the seas and in an effect to circumspect the traffic of the heart of the city. This will connect the cities of Worli and Haji Ali and is the phase 2 of the Western Freeway scheme that was formulated by the Government.

Design Aspects

The Worli – Haji Ali Sea link when built was supposed to have the clover like exchange roads called in architectural terms as ‘cloverleaf interchange’. The reason why this name was given to the intersection of the bridge is because when viewed in the aerial mode, this will resemble the four leaves of the clover and the four roads that branch out from the bridge will have to form circles intersecting each other before they go in different directions. Each of these circles form sector like groups which intersect each other and there is one particular spot in the bridge where all of these roads crisscross each other.

This, when it is built, will be the only flyover to be built in this pattern across India. This will make the bridge more sought after and give it a special place when spoken of the architectural excellences in the roads across India. Also, considering that Haji Ali is a most visited tourist spot with a road that could get submerged at times of high tides, the flyover will also ensure that the tourists flow to this spot remains unaffected.

Costing and financing

Though these are the architectural beauties that have been planned, currently the raising of this sea link has been put on hold because of financial questions that have risen. Since the safety and security measures cannot be compromised, the project is estimated to work out to INR 34.46 billion. The ministry of Environment and Forests worked along with Reliance Infrastructure to fund the project.  However the differences that existed amidst the two parties led to the halting of the agreement and the project has come to a standstill. The non-availability of the yard at Bandra was also cited as another reason for the project to be not extended.

Hopefully, the differences of opinion will be resolved and the sea link will be built and become operational soon and it will be the one of the famous bridges above the sea and will become a busy junction carrying most of the load of the city traffic at the peak timings and also become a marvelous architectural piece for outsiders as well as the people of Mumbai travelling to work regularly.

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