 "Atal Setu")
By Menaka Doshi
A $2 billion dollar bridge linking the island city of Mumbai to the mainland will boost connectivity with India’s financial capital at a time when Asia’s third-largest economy is seeking to upgrade its creaking infrastructure and boost growth.
The 21.8 kilometer bridge, India’s longest, will also ease access to the satellite city of Navi Mumbai, where a new airport is under construction by the Adani Group. The satellite city also houses some of the companies owned by Asia’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to inaugurate the bridge Friday. His government has been spending billions on modernizing India’s roads, ports and railways in its effort to match its giant neighbor China and become an economic powerhouse.
Mirroring some of those ambitions, Mumbai is expected to spend over $30 billion on road and metro rail projects by 2030 to reduce traffic congestion, promote public transport and open up supply of housing and commercial space across the metropolitan region.
Enthused by the better connectivity that the bridge is expected to bring, India’s state of Maharashtra, which houses the financial capital, plans to build another city nearby. That will make it one of the most promising growth corridors in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, real estate services firm Colliers said in a 2023 report.
The bridge took two decades to be built after it was conceived, during which time it has overcome environmental concerns, cost escalations and even the warring Ambani brothers.
The link will cut travel time from two hours to 30 minutes, according to construction giant Larsen & Toubro. But, with the toll at 350 rupees ($4.5) per round trip, only Mumbai’s richest are likely to use it for daily commutes.
Critics also point out that the bridge might not immediately solve Mumbai’s transport woes. Not adding a rail track to the sea link is a lost opportunity to push public transport, said Malini Krishnankutty, an urban planning consultant and professor at IIT Bombay’s Centre for Urban Science and Engineering.
She is hopeful authorities will run no-toll public bus services.
