Four additional lanes of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link will open to traffic by March 24, instead of March 16 as scheduled earlier.

Motorists moving from South Mumbai to the suburbs can use the new lanes after March 24 as some final touches are yet to be given to the north carriageway.

It was not opened on Gudi Padwa as planned earlier. Some work like painting, signages, etc remains. It will be opened by March 24  according to the Minister of Public Works Department (public undertakings). The carriageway was to be commissioned by 2009 December but was delayed as work was behind schedule.

Now, the four lanes of the operational carriageway are divided into two each for north- and south-moving traffic, resulting in some accidents. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is pinning its hopes on the carriageway to minimise accidents. There have been no accidents on the sea link for the last few months.

Source : www.indianexpress.com

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BWSL Bandra Worli Sea Link update - North carriageway of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) is almost ready for use. This will ease the traffic on BWSl. Thousands of motorists who squeeze into BWSL’s current four lanes will be happy to get four more lanes on BWSL Bandra Worli Sea link.

The north carriageway constructed by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) — contractor for the 4.7 km-long Bandra worli sea link has almost finished the construction and BWSL the north carriageway should be ready by the end of Fecruary 2010. The south-bound four lanes of the Bandra Worli Sea Link were opened in July last year.

Right now the BWSL Bandra Worli Sea Link is being utilized only 40% of its capacity but it is expected to get more traffic once the north carriageway is opened. Once the final touches are given to the BWSL Bandra Worli Sea Links north carriageway MSRDC will decide on the exact date for the opening of BWSL north carriageway.

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Now all the pillars of the Delhi Metro network are showing cracks and are coming down. Sorry state of affairs, I must say! How can you have such a prestigious project, Delhi Metro and bungle once everything has been set up? Things in India can never improve. We can never be another NY, Shanghai of Singapore.

The substance engineers use is sub standard. There is no coordination between concerned parties and nobody communicates properly. If you were on TV that day, you should’ve seen the cranes go kaput. It was hilarious. This happens only in India. And even after that ghastly incident, there are still pillars showing cracks and tottering. With the Commonwealth Games just around the corner, it comes as a surprise to see such a huge project go horribly wrong. Is only Gammon India at fault, or are there other parties involved?

I hope the sea link in Mumbai doesn’t end up like the Delhi Metro.  Talking about the sea link, rumour goes that the concerned authorities have brought down the toll charges so that more people ply on the sea link. But unfortunately, the great architectural masterpiece is proving to have no real value.

Correspondents of a daily newspaper who traveled on the main road and those who took the Sea Link came up with a difference of only 15 minutes in their travel time. So, it really comes as no surprise that very few people are actually using the Sea Link.

The bottle necks at Bandra and Worli might just be adding to the chaos, ever since the Sea Link came up. So, when is our infrastructure going to look up? Even the spacecraft, Chandrayaan that went up in space, developed a technical snag. We shouldn’t be goofing up on such important projects like that. I feel a better planning strategy, more precise decision making and better communication should help improve our lot.

Neha Singh

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Bandra Worli sea link - Damage to the top layer in just 25 days. Bandra worli sea link is opened to public just 25 days ago and the hype over the Bandra Worli Sea Link is starting to wear off, so is the surface of the 5.6-km road.

The surface has started getting damaged with the top layer of bitumen, called the wearing course, coming off at several places. The deteriorating top layer is the first step towards pothole formation.

Bandra worli sea link road surface, laid down using Dutch technology, has been designed to withstand the monsoon and bear high-density traffic. In spite of that, uneven surfaces have appeared at a few spots on bandra worli sea link. More at the Worli-end, merely 25 days after the sea link was opened to traffic.

According to the Chief Engineer, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, The surface is not cracking, It’s uneven at a few spots at the Worli-end. The polymer wearing course is coming off due to traction. They have asked the contractor to look into the matter and resurface it.

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Car owners believe the amount of fuel saved makes BWSL a cheaper alternative to Mahim Causeway.The Rs 50 toll came into effect from Monday,  but city motorists continue to remain enthusiastic about the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. Many say that it is still cheaper to use the sea link than take the Mahim Causeway, the only other route to south Mumbai.

Actually the travel from Bandra to Worli on the Mahim Causeway in your car , you waste an hour’s time and two litres petrol worth Rs 97. This includes the time and fuel spent while idling at traffic signals. If you take the sea link, you pay only Rs 50 and I reach Worli in eight to 10 minutes. You save time and a lot of fuel and this is significant, with the recent increase in fuel prices.

While the Mahim Causeway route has 23 traffic signals between the Bandra-Worli stretch, the sea link has only four. During peak hours, a return journey via the Mahim Causeway will cost a car owener two hours and Rs 194 for four litres of petrol. On the other hand, a return journey on the sea link takes only 20 minutes. Adding the cost of a two-way toll (Rs 75) and one litre petrol (Rs 47.50), it comes up to only Rs 122.50. A car owner stills saves Rs 71.50.

Time saved

Travel time from Bandra to Worli on the Mahim Causeway route takes approximately 45 minutes during morning peak hours, and an hour in the evening, with vehicles crawling at an average speed of 20 kmph.

With BWSL, a motorist will save the time and fuel he spends idling in traffic jams and signals. A smart driver will drive the car at an optimum speed of 40-50 kmph on BWSL, switch off the engine while waiting at the signal and save fuel.

Well in the first five days when BWSL was toll free, the bridge saw a daily turnout of around one lakh motorists. However, after the toll came into effect, the traffic situation on the bridge, on the Western Express Highway and on Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan road improved tremendously.

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