Last week, on January 12, 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation 21.8 km long, country’s largest and the world’s 12th largest sea bridge, Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), also known as Atal Setu, it was a day of both reckoning and relief for the city.
It was a day of reckoning because Atal Setu is a dream come true that will transform Mumbai. A day of relief because Mumbai, the financial, commercial, cultural and entertainment capital of India, gets a new lease on life. Else with 22 million population (out of which 9 million reside in slums) and a population density of approximately 73,000 per square mile, Mumbai is one of the most densely populated cities in the world and with nowhere to grow, Mumbai was dying a fast death.
Contrarily with Atal Setu, a new symbol of Viksit Mumbai, the life of Mumbaikars will never be the same. It gives confidence that ‘Mumbai can do it.’ This also reminds me of a saying I once read about Mumbai – “It is not though we have anywhere else to go. She is our only home. If she dies, we all die. It is time to begin today because tomorrow we may not have a Mumbai (Bombay) left to save.”
A Day from the Annals of History
Circa 1991, Friday, September 6. At 1125 hours, I alighted from Howrah-Bombay Mail after 24 hours, a 1515 km train journey between Mughalsarai and Bombay VT. I was unaware then that my last leg of the 27 km journey from Bombay VT to CBD Belapur, New Bombay, in Mumbai’s iconic Kaali Peeli Fiat taxi would take 7 hours to complete at the excruciating 3.87 kmph. This tortuous story of 27 km travel in 7 hours begs to be narrated.
Those days, the way to reach New Bombay was through a narrow-overcrowded road passing through Masjid, Bhendi Bazar, Dadar, Matunga, Chembur and Mankhurd. But once one reached Mankhurd, the gateway to New Bombay, one hit the dead end invariably. In those days, Central Railway harbour line suburban trains and BEST buses did not go beyond Mankhurd. And to my dismay, I found myself stranded with the 1973 vintage, on the 1837 metre-long, two-lane Thane Creek bridge, the sole connector of Mankhurd to New Bombay, as a two-axle truck had broken down on the bridge, blocking traffic on both lanes.
With the bridge closed, I was left with Hobson’s choice and was forced to take a long detour from Mankhurd to reach CBD Belapur via Thane, it was straight 7 hours from Bombay VT. Such was my first tryst with New Bombay, Konkan Rail’s head office at Belapur Bhavan.
Over the next six years, a period when the responsibility to raise money to complete the Konkan Railway project fell majorly on my tiny shoulders, hours spent daily in the chokehold traffic of Mumbai (Bombay) became my destiny. Had there been the Atal Setu then it could have taken me 20 minutes to reach Nariman Point and Cuffe Parade from CBD Belapur. Atal Setu in its train brings substantial benefits to Mumbai and its hinterland. More importantly, it also provides substantial lessons on “what to do” and “what not to do” for rapid infrastructure development which is the crying need of Viksit Bharat.
Benefits Atal Setu Brings in Its Train
As Prime Minister Modi rightly said, Atal Setu is all about the “ease of life.” I add further that it is also about a major growth propellant. It drastically reduces the travel time between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai including the new airport from 2 hours to 20 minutes, bringing the two at a stone’s throw away distance. With it, Navi Mumbai will see transformational growth, taking much of the weight off the land-starved and transport-gridlocked island city. The 100kmph bridge also drastically improves the comfort and accessibility between the island and the mainland, cuts down the operating costs of vehicles as it eliminates congestion, provides smooth traffic flow from Navi Mumbai airport to Mumbai Island and paves the way for the development of the third city.
Atal Setu also brings in its wake many indirect benefits
These include:
- The rationalisation of the real estate prices in Greater Mumbai.
- Reduction in the ghettoization of Mumbai whose 9 million population reside in slums.
- Increased demand for and better utilisation of land in Navi Mumbai.
- The accelerated economic development of Navi Mumbai and nearby regions and distant hinterlands.
- Greater economic integration of Mumbai with Navi Mumbai and extended regions of Pune, Panvel and Alibaug.
- Environmental improvement and reduced pollution levels, improved safety due to reduction in accidents.
- The improvement in trade and trade competitiveness through faster and improved logistics.
What are the biggest lessons from Atal Setu for infrastructure creation in the country to make it a developed nation by 2047? The lessons are legion, but none is bigger than the fact that if the bridge had arrived in the 1970s when Navi Mumbai was planned or even in the 1990s when it started growing, Mumbai would not have had to face the existential crisis where it has landed. Here are the key lessons from Atal Setu in “what not to do” and “what to do” when it comes to critically needed fast infrastructure development for Viksit Bharat.
Wasted 21927 Days
The biggest lesson from Atal Setu is that it came much later than it should have. It was first conceived as a part of the Bombay Traffic and Transportation Study (1963) done by Wilbur Smith & Associates, a study funded by the World Bank and supported by the Government of India. The study report said, “The traffic of Bombay can be adequately served only by freeways. If urban freeways are not constructed, the congestion will increase to such a point as to seriously retard future economic growth and increase substantially the cost of travel in the area… the concept that a dedicated road network was required to move traffic efficiently from origin to destination required the system of high-speed roads within the city bound by a lot of freeways and crisscrossed by expressways liberally served by intersections.”
What a prophecy and what a recommendation.
The key recommendations of the Wilbur Smith study included the Western Freeway including the Nariman Point-Bandra sea link, the East Island sea link, the Eastern Freeway, the Western and Eastern Expressways, the Mahim Creek connector and the Cross Island connector, all at a combined cost of Rs 93.18 crore. Decades were wasted. Nothing happened. Nothing moved. Most proposals gathered dust and costs escalated. And the land-starved Mumbai choked under the weight of its fast-growing population and fast-worsening transport gridlock.
The Missed Opportunity
Despite the MTHL first figuring in the 1970 City Draft Development Plan and nothing moving despite committees in 1972 and 1978 examining alternatives (a northern route linking Sewri with Nhava and a southern route linking Colaba with Uran), nothing moved.
A golden opportunity came the Bombay way when in February 1981, a Steering Group headed by none other than Bharat Ratna J.R.D. Tata was appointed. The Steering Group reviewed the earlier studies and recommended the construction of a link between Sewri and Nhava on priority. In 1982, the group appointed an international consortium of consultants led by Peter Frankael and Partners (PFP), UK, to carry out a feasibility study and prepare a detailed project report for the proposed Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL). The feasibility report was submitted in 1983, different alignments (length varying between 20 to 23 km) between Sewri and Nhava were examined and the most optimal was recommended duly taking into account the issues related to BARC and the port trust. The alignment was approved by the Prime Minister’s Office in 1984.
I inject a personal note here. Once, over lunch in Bombay Gymkhana in 2000, the late P.G. Patankar, who was a member of JRD Tata Steering Group, told this author and MQ Dalvi, a noted Indian-origin transport economist, how he in recent times took Ratan Tata to the chief minister of Maharashtra requesting Tata Group to build the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link at its own cost. All Ratan Tata wanted was the bridge to be named after JRD Tata, who had spent ten years as chairperson of the Steering Group. The permission was denied. Mumbai continued to bleed. It missed a golden opportunity to reboot and reimagine itself.
Committees Galore but no Action
After 10 years of labour by JRD Tata-led Steering Group, it was action time. Had the Trans Harbour Link construction commenced then, it would have saved Mumbai and would have been commissioned at a landed cost of less than Rs 500 crore.
Alas! It was not to be. Instead of starting construction at the earliest, there were committees galore but no action. There was a CES Committee, there was a CWPRS Committee. Changes in alignment were suggested. There was talk of rail cum road bridge. Only talk and talk, but no action.
Galloping Cost
And a bridge that could have been completed in the 1990s at less than Rs 500 crore, its cost went on galloping. MQ Dalvi, who lived in London but whose heart resided in Mumbai, wrote in 2003 in a magazine: “Project cost in 2000 estimated at Rs 2000 crore along with connector roads. Tata Group wanted to build the project and also had made some financial provisions. All it wanted was for the bridge to be named as JRD Tata Bridge…In this context, the proposed Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) connecting Sewri to Nhava Sheva is expected to be a key driver in the development of the city by decongesting it. The link would help reduce the problems of congestion and pollution in Mumbai Island.”
It was not to be, again. Politics and politicking ruled the roost. Bombay, now Mumbai, continued to suffer.
From Rs 500 crore to Rs 18000 crore
Had the MTHL been constructed in the 1990s, it would have cost less than Rs 500 crore including all the connector roads. Had it happened in the early 2000s, as Dalvi wrote, the cost would have been around Rs 2000 crore. Even if it were completed in the second half of the first decade, the landed cost of the project could have been no more than Rs 4000 crore.
The Tug of War
There were many false starts amid the tug of wars before the dream of MTHL became a reality. First was a tug of war between IL&FS and MSRDC, and then there was an internecine war between MSRDC and MMRDA, two arms of the Maharashtra government. Finally, there was a tug of war between a failed model of development of complex infra project (PPP) and desirable mode EPC. There were too many studies and too many failed tenders which could not be finalised.
A Tale of Two Friends
India has a sad history of galloping project costs of infrastructure projects owing to myriad reasons, the most important reason being the lack of financial close of the project. However, once taken on the fast track, the MTHL project was saved from the financial crunch woes due to the friendship of Abe Shinzō, former Japanese Prime Minister and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Had it not been for the soft JICA loan, which funded 85 per cent of the project cost, Atal Setu would have remained a pipe dream.
Pran Pratishtha in 1867 Days
On January 22, 2024, within 1535 days of the Supreme Court judgement, Bharat will witness the Pran Pratishtha of Lord Ram in his new abode. Before this new confident Bharat emerged, I used to tell India to emulate the “China Way” of fast infrastructure development. But in my previous piece, I enunciated the “Ayodhya way” of fast coordinated infrastructure development to actualise the dream of Viksit Bharat.
The lesson that emerges from Atal Setu is the new “Atal Setu way” aka the “Ayodhya way” of fast and furious quality infrastructure creation without cost and time overrun. It was unimaginable on December 24, 2016, that merely in 2575 days of the foundation stone ceremony and 1867 days of commencing of the construction (April 2018), despite 240 days lost to Covid, Atal Setu would be constructed and dedicated in mere 1867 days.
Partnership Par Excellence
For the past few years, I have espoused and have been shouting from the rooftop that the complex infrastructure construction contracts awarded to the lowest cost bidder is a sure recipe for disaster and it is time to introduce the best practices of quality cum cost contracts for infrastructure building. To me, the biggest reason the latest Indian wonder has become operational in 1867 days is the partnership of the best Indian and global engineering firms – Larsen & Toubro and Tata Projects from India, Japan’s IHI Corporation, Daewoo Engineering and Strabarg Infrastructure of Austria.
It is time for India to revisit and reimagine its contracting principles, practices, rules, and regulations.
What a Setu
The majestic Atal Setu relegates to the background India’s hitherto “crown glory”, the Pamban Bridge, which connects Rameshwaram Island to mainland India. The 6-lane Atal Setu, with a 16.5-km long sea link and 5.5-km viaducts on land, which will cater to around 70,000 vehicles a day at a speed of 100kmph, is a technical marvel. The steel used in its construction (177903 metric tonnes) is enough to support the erection of four Howrah Bridges and 17 Eiffel Towers. The cement used is a whopping 504,253 metric tonnes. And what a technological innovation.
MMRDA documents state that on average, a total of 5,403 workers and engineers worked every day for completion of the project since work began in mid-2018. In the marine portion, engineers and workers had to dig as deep as 47 metres in the sea bed. From Sewri, an 8.5 km noise barrier and 6 km view barrier have been installed, as the portion of the bridge passes through a flamingo-protected area and BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre), which is a highly sensitive area.
It is time to say unmistakably, that the biggest lesson from Atal Setu is that a new, confident Viksit Bharat, soon to be the third-largest economy of the world, has begun its fast-forward march to join the galaxy of developed nations.
The author is Multidisciplinary Thought Leader with Action Bias and India Based International Impact Consultant. He works as President Advisory Services of Consulting Company BARSYL. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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