Round trip on sealink is 3.6 km longer

A round trip made using the Bandra-Worli sealink is 3.6 km longer than the same trip made on the conventional route, reports Sayli Udas Mankikar.

A round trip made using the Bandra-Worli sealink is 3.6 km longer than the same trip made on the conventional route.

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The use of buses on the Rs 1,684-crore sealink will reduce congestion at both ends of the link to some extent.

Dar Consultants, appointed in 1995 to study the sealink’s potential impact, had made an incorrect forecast. It had projected 79,335 passenger car units (PCUs) would use the sealink in 2009, rising to 1,20,331 in 2011. The current official figure is only 30,000 PCUs per day.

These are some of the interesting findings of the “Benchmark study for traffic counts for Bandra sealink before and after the start up of the sealink”, conducted by the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU), the state government’s think tank on its Mumbai makeover project.

Aiming to study traffic on the sealink before and after it opened, it monitored hourly traffic on Mahim Causeway (by type of vehicle) before and after the sealink opened.

For the purpose of the study, a round-trip was studied from Bandra (W) railways station and Jaslok Hospital on Pedder Road, and back — it turned out to be an average of 3.6 km less when using Mahim Causeway.

“One is really not sure if the sealink has achieved its purpose. According to our study, the average PCU count — 4,060 before the sealink opened — is now 2,683, which is a reduction of roughly 2,000 PCUs per hour. Considering a 16-hour period, that’s roughly 22,000, which is well below the consultant’s predictions,” said transport consultant Ashok Datar, who conducted the independent study for MTSU.