The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) connecting Navi Mumbai and Raigad with Mumbai will not get a metro line.
The Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) connecting Navi Mumbai and Raigad with Mumbai will not get a metro line. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has dropped plans to have provisions for two metro lanes on the bridge due to feasibility issues.
The six-lane MTHL, work on which is due to begin next year, will have a 16.5km section in the sea and a 5.5km one on land. It will connect Sewri in Central Mumbai to Chirle in Navi Mumbai. The Rs8,800-crore bridge will be the longest sea bridge in India.
A senior MMRDA official said, “A detailed study has revealed that laying the foundation for the bridge with provisions for two metro lanes would hike costs instead of save money. Hence, it will be feasible to have a separate bridge for the metro in the future.”
The official pointed out that as there is every chance of returns not being secured soon private players will not invest in public-private partnership (PPP) projects. Also, the metro line on the bridge would not yield any immediate financial recovery as work on the 3.5km Sewri-Prabhadevi metro line, to which it was to be connected, has not started.
Moreover, the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA), whose passengers the metro was to cater to, will take more time to be commissioned.
“We have to make the MTHL viable as a road project,” said the official, adding that the immediate need for a mass transit system on the bridge would have arisen only if the NMIA had been commissioned.
“A metro on the route will be a point-to-point service as any stops en route will not be feasible,” the official said. “We may have to take it up as an independent project after it can be connected with the Sewri-Prabhadevi line and the NMIA’s development.”
The MTHL will provide better links to the proposed NMIA, Pune, Goa, and southern states. It will also help movement of cargo from the Mumbai, JNPT and the Rewas ports.
The MTHL, which will be constructed under the PPP mode on the design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis, will have a concession period of 45 years, including the construction period, in which the concessioner will collect toll.
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