Mumbai: The cost of Mumbai’s Bandra-Versova Sea Link has risen exponentially by over 140 percent in the past seven years, primarily due to technical changes in the project, increase in the scope of work, and delays.
The Maharashtra government’s public works department Thursday issued a resolution approving the revised project cost of Rs 18,120.96 crore, up from the original cost of Rs 7,502 crore that was approved in 2017.
The project is being implemented on an engineering procurement construction (EPC) model by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC). Under this model, the cost is completely borne by the government, while the participation of the private company, which is given the contract, is limited to construction and engineering expertise.
A cabinet subcommittee on infrastructure had signed off on the increased cost in its meeting in March. The project deadline has also been extended to May 2028 from December 2026, an MSRDC official told ThePrint.
So far, 11.66 percent of the total work on the bridge has been completed. Once complete, the sea link is likely to ease travel from the western suburbs to southern Mumbai,
Rajesh Patil, joint managing director of the MSRDC, did not respond to ThePrint’s calls and text messages. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
The Bandra-Versova Sea Link is a northward extension of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, which connects Bandra in the western suburbs of Mumbai to Worli in southern Mumbai. The sea link is connected to the Mumbai Coastal Road (MCR) on the Worli end.
The Bandra-Versova Sea Link is key as it will further ease the commute from southern Mumbai to the western suburbs.
The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is planning yet another sea link from Versova in northwestern Mumbai to Virar in northern Mumbai to further boost connectivity between the western and northern suburbs of the city, and commercial hubs such as Bandra and southern Mumbai.
Project planned in 2009, but started a decade later
The Bandra-Versova Sea Link was originally planned in 2009 for implementation on a public-private partnership model. In 2011, the then Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government’s cabinet committee on infrastructure approved of a detailed plan for the sea link’s implementation.
The project, however, remained a non-starter because around 2011, the government under the then chief minister Prithviraj Chavan started exploring the idea of building a coastal road right up to Kandivalia, a suburb in northern Mumbai, by reclaiming land.
The idea of the Bandra-Versova Sea Link was brought back on the table in 2017 when the government under Devendra Fadnavis decided to implement it on an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) model with the MSRDC as the nodal agency, in accordance with the government resolution.
The cost of the project was pegged at Rs 7,502 crore.
The government resolution further said that in 2018, the project cost was revised to Rs 11,332.8 crore on the basis of the amount quoted in the bids received for the project. The MSRDC was also asked to consider joining the sea link to the Western Express Highway with a connector from Juhu.
The construction started in 2019, but the project could not pick up pace as Mumbai’s fishing community raised certain objections, saying it was impacting their livelihoods.
The MSRDC official quoted above told ThePrint that fishermen were troubled by the constant to and fro of contractors carrying construction equipment from the casting yard to the site through their navigation channels as it was impacting their catch of fish.
The government had then set up a panel to find solutions to the grievances of fishermen.
The biggest reasons behind the latest Rs 6,788.14 crore rise in cost from the Rs 11,332.82 crore approved in 2018 are changes to the exit at Juhu and shifting of one navigation span. A span is the distance between two piers (vertical support structures of bridges).
Moreover, the casting yard also had to be shifted from Juhu to Malad, contributing to the cost increase.
(Edited by Radifah Kabir)
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