About 134 small fishing boats drifted to the Mumbai Trans Harbour Sealink (MTHL) project site at Sewri because of cyclone Tauktae. This damaged the temporary bridge, which helped transport raw materials to the actual project site that is a few metres away. Clearing them will take another seven to 10 days, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) Commissioner RA Rajeev informed the media on Tuesday.
According to MMRDA, some makeshift toilets made for workers were also damaged due to the weather conditions. Also, an accommodation barge of the MTHL project was severely damaged.
MMRDA is constructing a 21.80 kms link (about 16.5 km sea bridge and about 5.5 kms viaduct on land), which will have 100 years of design life. Since the pillars of this bridge will pass over the sea, high-quality material is being used to ensure high resistance to chloride. It will also protect it from corrosion with enhanced durability and excellent resistance against fretting fatigue. MMRDA is the nodal agency taking care of all project-related work and JICA is the funding agency for the said project, which costs Rs 17,843 crore.
Interestingly, for the easy execution of the project work and to attain the set deadline, the work has been divided into four packages. Package one to three comprises civil work and package four consists of setting up an intelligent transport system.
