Bandra-Worli Sea Link: Bridge to somewhere?

Travel in India���s financial capital just got a little easier. The much-awaited bridge connecting Mumbai���s Bandra and Worli on the city���s western coast was inaugurated yesterday to the delight of thousands of harried commuters. At 5.6 km, the sea link is India���s longest bridge and the first in the country to be built over open sea. The sea link project is an engineering marvel all right, but it���s also an exemplar of the things that are wrong with the nation���s infrastructure planning.

The numbers speak for themselves. The project was at least four years overdue. Including approach roads, it cost Rs 1,634 crore, more than double the original budget. To put that in perspective, the 7.7-km-long sea bridge between Denmark and Sweden was completed in four years and so was China���s 35.6 km Hangzhou Bay Bridge. The Bang Na Expressway in Thailand, though it doesn���t cross a body of water for most of its length, was completed in just two years.

Meanwhile, India���s infrastructure projects continue to be plagued by poor planning and execution. Contracts are routinely renegotiated midway through projects, the government is tardy in obtaining required clearances and the process is mired in red tape, with various authorities competing against each other for influence. There are already doubts about whether the Mumbai sea link will prove to be economical, given that traffic is likely to accumulate at both ends of the bridge, not saving commuters too much time. It���s not clear why urban planners are unable to come up with viable solutions to such problems. It is common sense that traffic dispersal at either end of the bridge would have to be looked into and it���s absurd that those in charge of the project did not anticipate the issue. This kind of myopia sinks infrastructure development in India. Cost overruns and delays are so common that it is no surprise that investors are wary of betting on infrastructure.

One of the few examples of successful infrastructure development in recent years has been the Delhi Metro, which has managed not only to meet deadlines but also keep on budget. One reason for this success is that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation works autonomously. Certainly, the work of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) leaves much to be desired ��� apparently, the MCD has 45,000 fake employees. No wonder then that the civic body cannot discharge its duties satisfactorily. The urban development ministry recently released its 100-day agenda, which makes for encouraging reading. But with urban population projected to increase to 40 per cent of the country���s total population by 2021, we need much more than a 100-day agenda to deal with India���s infrastructure deficit.