Thackeray to launch first girder for Trans-Harbour Link at Sewri today

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will launch of the first girder for the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) at Sewri on Wednesday. This will be one of the

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will launch of the first girder for the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) at Sewri on Wednesday. This will be one of the first big-ticket infrastructure projects that Thackeray will launch after assuming office in November 2019.

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The event is being held amidst increasing speculation on the fate of several infrastructure projects under the newly-formed Shiv Sena-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party government. After assuming office, Thackeray ordered a review of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project and also stalled work on the car shed being built for Metro-3 (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz) in Aarey Milk Colony. The 60-metre girder will be launched from the Sewri side on Wednesday. MTHL is a 22-km-long sea-bridge that will connect Mumbai to Navi Mumbai. The project has been on the drawing board since the 1980s, before it was finally given a push by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and work on the project commenced in March 2018. RA Rajeev, metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, at a recent interaction, said 25% of the work on the Sewri-Nhava Sheva connector has been completed. According to data shared by MMRDA, 76% of work on a temporary bridge being built over the sea has been completed. The infra agency has also constructed 55 of 820 piers, and 37% of the pile foundation has been completed.

The ₹17,843-crore project is expected to be operational by September 2022. When it was first mooted in the mid-1980s, the estimated cost of MTHL was ₹350 crore. The link is expected to reduce travel time between Mumbai and its satellite city from two-and-a-half hours to one hour.