Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link: You may have to pay ₹240 toll for cars

City to Navi Mumbai sea bridge: Toll for buses may be ₹550 and light commercial vehicles likely to be ₹310.

Travelling on the 21.8-km Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL), India’s longest sea bridge, which connects Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, might pinch your pockets, as the toll may be ₹240 for cars, ₹550 for buses and ₹310 for light commercial vehicles, according to the estimates mentioned in the quarterly progress reports filed by the general consultants in December 2019.

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray recently launched the first girder for the MTHL. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray recently launched the first girder for the MTHL. The deadline for the project is September 2022. According to the report, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) expects 49,100 vehicles to use the bridge by 2022. For cars, the toll between Sewri and Shivaji Nagar interchange is estimated to be ₹180 and another ₹60 between Shivaji Nagar and Chirle in Navi Mumbai.

The earlier feasibility report of MTHL, in 2012, estimated the toll for cars/taxis to be ₹175, ₹525 for buses and heavy commercial vehicles and ₹265 for light commercial vehicles. In 2012, the cost of the project was estimated at ₹14,262 crore, while the MMRDA is now executing the project at a cost of ₹17,843 crore, with a loan from the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) with a 30-year return period. The estimated cost of the project, when it was first planned in the 1980s, was ₹350 crore. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, which is executing the Versova-Bandra sea link, has also estimated the toll to be ₹210 for cars. RA Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, said, “The state will take a final decision on the toll before the completion of the project. There can be cost escalations owing to unforeseen circumstances, but the decision rests with the government.”

Paresh Rawal, a transport expert, said, “Road infrastructure across the world is expensive and it cannot be cross-subsidised like public transport. These rates may also act as a congestion charge, although the authority might not look at it that way.”