Mumbai: Monday marked the first day of the southbound bridge connecting the Bandra-Worli Sea Link to Mumbai Coastal Road for motorists. So far, only the northbound bridge had been opened to traffic.
On Jan 26, Sunday, 13,410 southbound vehicles travelled from Bandra to Marine Drive and 26,462 northbound. Till 9pm Monday, traffic intensified with 21,639 southbound vehicles and 23,206 northbound.
The bridge was inaugurated Sunday, Jan 26, by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde.
Currently, three of the four lanes of the bridge are operational. Although the main construction work is complete, some finishing tasks such as cleaning and painting remain. That apart, median and promenade works are also underway. To accommodate this, the contractor has been permitted to use one lane, leaving the other three open to motorists. Works on this portion of the coastal road are being executed by Hindustan Construction Co Ltd.
Both carriageways of the arch bridge are equipped with safety barriers to protect workers while the lanes remain in use by vehicles.
Several motorists who used the bridge while commuting to their workplaces Monday morning said the travel was smooth. Nilesh Jadhav, a Mantralaya employee, travelled from his Bandra East home to his workplace in just 30 minutes. He said, “So far, I would drive off the BWSL on reaching Worli and take a left before making a U-turn again at J K Kapur Chowk. Even then, before I took the coastal road entry, I would encounter speed-breakers and bottlenecks, thus prolonging my travel. Monday was convenient as I could take the BWSL bridge first and then the coastal road, thus reaching Mantralaya in 30 minutes.”
Pratik Salgaonkar, a lawyer and a Malad West resident who has travelled to his workplace at Tardeo along this route for the past 15 years, said he saved about 17 minutes of travel time. “Earlier, cars used to crawl on the sea link’s southbound section for 1.5-2km towards Worli Sea Face during morning peak hours, which resulted in wastage of fuel. Now that won’t be the case,” he said.
Prabhadevi’s Vedant Shah, who took the coastal road’s interchange arm that was also inaugurated Sunday, though, said there is a need for better signage. The coastal road is open from 7am till midnight, with 5 million vehicles using it between March 12 to Dec 31, 2024.