Although the length of the Worli-Haji Ali stretch of the sea link is said to be approximately 4 km on paper, if the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) officials are to be believed, the total length of this second phase is going to be more than the first link. Also, the cost of this stretch will go up by leaps and bound.
The cost of the Bandra-Worli stretch increased from Rs400 crore to a whopping Rs1,634 crore. However, the contractor and MSRDC have been defending their case by saying that the escalation was because of the change in alignment and an additional cable stayed bridge. Now, the second stretch will also see a higher cost, even though there are no complicated engineering works such as the cable stayed bridge — an extremely complicated engineering job.
According to senior MSRDC officials, though the actual sea link is 3.6 km into the sea, there are several other aspects which will be responsible for the increased cost. “The connector towards Haji Ali connecting the link with the main road will be of 1.25 km. Besides this, the most complicated part will be the clover leaf flyover at Worli. This will be a similar structure like the one opposite the Bandra fire brigade office. This will ensure smooth traffic flow at Worli junction. Together, this takes the total length to 7 km,” said an MSRDC official.
In spite of the increased distance of the sea link, there will be a variation between the costs quoted by MSRDC as well as the winner consortium — Reliance Infrastructure and Hyundai. The cost as per MSRDC is Rs4,300 crore (including the viability gap of Rs1,392 crore and the buying back of Bandra-Worli Sea Link for Rs1,634 crore), but the bidder has estimated the cost at Rs5,000 crore. Defending this variation, the official added that the cost quoted by the bid winner includes interest figures as well.
