Weekend Drive by Hormazd Sorabjee: Zipping down the Trans Harbour Link
India’s longest sea bridge, the Atal Setu, is a 21.8km long six-lane trans-harbour bridge that is both cool and convenient
Mumbai has just become less of an island. There’s a new and easy way to get in and out, and it’s called the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Sheva Atal Setu. The official name of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link is as long as the bridge! In fact, at 21.8km, it’s the longest bridge of its kind in India, of which 16.5km is over water. Built with state-of-the-art construction technology, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) took an incredibly quick five years (including two years of Covid) to build the Atal Setu and realise a dream that goes back to 1962 when the idea of a bridge across Mumbai’s harbour was first mooted by Wilbur Smith and Associates, an American consultancy firm.
That the Atal Setu will be a gamechanger for the people in the Mumbai region is an understatement. Firstly, it will cut a journey from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai that could take up to two hours in peak traffic, down to 20 minutes. And it’s a pleasurable and efficient 20 minutes, making it worth the Rs. 250 toll.
It’s when you leave the Eastern Freeway and get onto the ramp towards the Atal Setu that enormous scale of the bridge hits you. The giant, spaghetti-like interchange at the Sewri end is built on 30 acres of land and intertwined with entry and exit ramps for seamless access from all directions
The bridge itself is super smooth, three lanes wide each way. According to MMRDA’s projections it has the capacity to comfortably absorb the growth in traffic until 2040. When I drove on it a few weeks before the grand opening by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 12th, I had the Atal Setu all to myself. It was very difficult to show restraint in the Audi 646hp RS e-tron GT, which is capable of 250 plus kmph, but I was good and stuck to the fairly generous 100kph limit
It was a surreal feeling to silently cruise across the harbour in the all-electric Audi, with pink flamingos dotting the muddy shore at the Sewri end, a view of Elephanta island you’ve never seen before and the Navi Mumbai skyline emerging through the smog as you rapidly approach the mainland.
You’ll also notice that the Atal Setu isn’t flat and straight but has curves and slopes.
There’s a reason for this. The Atal Setu has to steer past sensitive areas such as mangroves, oil refineries and the high-security Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. It also had to veer away from the Elephanta Island by at least 1km And if that wasn’t enough, the bridge had to dodge undersea fuel pipelines and yet have enough height at certain points for big ships to pass through. That’s why the bridge is taller in some sections. And if you’re wondering why this huge bridge doesn’t have the magnificent cable-stay construction of the Bandra-Worli Sea link, it’s to avoid disturbing the flight path of the flamingos. It’s all these considerations that have defined Atal Setu’s contours and geometry.
I reach the end of the Atal Setu in an unbelievable 15 minutes flat. I can’t get my head around how quickly I’ve crossed the harbour and onto the mainland. This bridge shatters your concept of time and distance, it makes Pune, Alibaug, Lonavala and every road trip going east, that much shorter and quicker.
Future generations will forget or not even know what Mumbai was like without this new lifeline to the mainland, But for us Mumbaikars right now, it’s something transformational and liberating.
