He also expressed confidence that much delayed 5.8 kilometer Bandra-Worli sea link will become operational by January next year.
Deshmukh was speaking with media persons after the media tour of the project on Thursday. The bidding process for the project will be completed and work orders will be issued for the extension project by the end of this year, he claimed.
The extension project will be carried out on Built Operate Own and Transfer (BOOT) basis and the successful bidder will have to buy out MSRDC from Bandra-Worli Sea link project.
The successful bidder will get rights to collect the toll on both the sea links for next thirty years. The MSRDC is expected to incur the cost of Rs 1,640 crore on the Bandra-Worli Sea link after the completion.
"Nearly 78 per cent work is completed and even though work will get slow during the monsoon we are confident that the Bandra-Worli sea link will be open for public by January next year and it will reduce the travel time between Bandra and Worli from present 60 to 75 minutes to 7 minutes," he said.
At present around 1.4 lakh vehicles pass through bridge on the Mahim creek everyday, which is the only road link between island city and Western suburbs and once sea link is inaugurated it will attract at least 80 per cent of the traffic from the Mahim creek. And Motorist will have to pay the toll for next 30 years, Deshmukh said.
The Bandra-Worli Sea link which suppose to have become operational by 2004 got delayed because project got entangled in the litigation because of environmental reasons and resistance from fishermen community.
After MSRDC assured to change the alignment in the supreme court, project was cleared by the apex court. The change in alignment and delays increased the cost of project from little over Rs 400 crore to Rs 1,600 crore.
Answering to another question Deshmukh said, "state government had to put the sea link between Worli and Nariman point on hold as only two bidders came forward for the project and finally only one bidder submitted the bid document so it was difficult for state government to go ahead on the basis of just one bid. And in the meanwhile various other options like underground tunnel between Haji Ali and Nariman point, combination of tunnel and sea link, extension of Marin Drive (Costal Road) etc and state government has appointed consultant to weigh the pros and cons of all the options and submit the report to state government".
