Northern carriageway of sea link to open on Wed Yogesh Naik & Somit Sen, TNN, Mar 23, 2010,

MUMBAI: The traffic to western suburbs and city will get a major respite soon as the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation is opening the northern carriageway of the Bandra Worli Sea Link on March 24.

Public works (undertakings) minister Jaidutt Kshirsagar said CM Ashok Chavan and deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal would inaugurate the northern carriageway. The south carriageway was opened on July 1 last year and barricades were placed in between to enable traffic on both sides. The HCC completed the project a few days back and the sealink is now ready. The sea link will be closed from 12 noon on March 24 till 5 am on March 25 for the function.

Kshirsagar said the work of extending the link to Haji Ali by the Reliance-led consortium would start by Diwali. The MSRDC has also called for bids for starting water transport on the western coast of Mumbai connecting Nariman Point with Borivli with jetties at Bandra, Juhu, Versova and Marve. Kshirsagar added that the state government has also given a state support agreement to project.

MSRDC managing director Sonia Sethi said that 19 companies had purchased the bid document and the last date of submission was April 15. The MSRDC had tried earlier to start water transport, but the move fizzled as the company selected failed to qualify basic norms.

The project to start water transport on east coast fizzled out as the Mumbai Port Trust refused to give Jamshetji Bunder citing strategic reasons, a MSRDC official said.