Preliminary work on Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link project finally under way

Preliminary work on the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) project has started a year after three contracts were awarded.

Company officials and the state government are confident that the project would be completed on time.

The MTHL project is being developed at a cost of around Rs 170 billion and is likely to be completed by the first half of 2022.

“The work, under the ambit of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), is in full swing and the project is on track,” said an L&T spokesperson in an email response. The engineering conglomerate is constructing Package one and Package two of the project. L&T is building the project in partnership with IHI Corporation, Japan.

Package three is being built by Tata Project in partnership with Daewoo E&C of South Korea. To do the work, the Daewoo-Tata Projects joint venture is bringing in specialist equipment from overseas.

The company has also installed the concrete batching plant on the barge and the commissioning trials are in progress. The project team is planning to commence construction of Marine Test Pile by the end of November this year,” said a communications official from Tata Projects.  The official added that construction of a temporary structural steel bridge has also started while Geotechnical investigation is nearing completion. Design works based on the geotechnical investigation and site-specific data are in an advance stage.

Of the 22-km stretch, package-01 of the contract involves the construction of a multi-level interchange at Sewri and a six-lane marine bridge from Sewri to 10.38 km into the Mumbai bay. “At present, work on constructing a temporary bridge to build the first three kilometres of the first package is under way,” said a person associated with the project.

The MTHL project connecting the island to the mainland through sea is a first for the country. While the inter-tidal parts of the project are to be built using a temporary-built steel bridge, the parts in deep sea will be constructed with the help of floating structures, according to people in the know.

The bridge is to be developed as an Orthotropic Steel Deck, which is one that comprises a structural steel deck plate stiffened either longitudinally or transversely and is supported by pillars. The Package one stretch, for instance, is to be built with more than 540 pillars, some of which were constructed in the sea.

The project, which has been in the making for decades, is free of any land acquisition issues. The required land for the two ends of the bridge has been sourced from the Mumbai Port Trust and City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is a city planning agency for Maharashtra.