Bandra Worli Sea Link Mumbai

The Bandra–Worli Sea Link, which is officially called as Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link, is an engineering wonder linking the south Mumbai and the western suburbs of Mumbai. 

This cable suspended bridge with concrete and steel viaducts on both of its sides, connecting Worli in South Mumbai to Bandra.

Bandra Worli Sea Link


The bridge is a part of the Western Freeway, which connects the Western Suburbs to the business district, Nariman Point. The total cost of construction of the bridge, built by the Hindustan Construction Company, was around Rs 1600 crore (US$ 240 million). 

There are four lanes in the Bandra Worli Sea Link and four of them were opened to the public in the month of June in 2009 and all the lanes were started working in 2010. 

The main intention behind the construction of Bandra Worli Sea Link was to reduce the 60–90 minutes time taken to travel from Bandra to Worli into 20–30 minutes. Around 37,500 vehicles uses the Bandra–Worli Sea Link every day according to the records in 2009.

History of Bandra–Worli Sea Link

Before the Bandra–Worli Sea Link was opened, the Mahim Causeway was the one and only access to the Nariman point from the western suburbs of Mumbai. 

To reduce this traffic congestion The West Island Freeway project was commissioned by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited (MSRDC).

As the first step of this project the The Bandra–Worli Sea-Link, was constructed over the Mahim Bay. In the year of 1999 the foundation stone of the project was laid by Bal Thackeray. 

The total cost estimated for the construction was around 6.6 billion INR. But a total of 16 billion INR was spent for the completion of the construction. 

Design of the Bandra Worli Sea Link

The Bandra–Worli Sea Link is the primary cable-stayed bridge constructed in open sea in India. TheDesign of the Bandra–Worli Sea Link pylons of the bridge are having a complex geometry and the main span over the Bandra channel is made as the longest span to suit the design with the underlying geology of the sea.

A span-by-span method was used for the construction of these superstructure viaducts. 

Only very minute tolerance was imparted in the plan and designs to successfully complete the construction of 20,000 tone Bandra- end span of the bridge deck. 

The first infrastructure project with seismic arresters, in Mumbai was the Bandra–Worli Sea Link. 

Earthquakes measuring up to 8.0 on the Richter scale can be endured by the sea link as an advantage of the Seismic arresters.

Foundation and substructure of the Bandra–Worli Sea Link

The underlying marine geology of the seabed caused highly variable Geotechnical conditions and uneven foundation bed had to be constructed for even a single pile of the bridge.

Variable intertidal zone present in the area was another difficulty faced in the process. 120 reinforced concrete piles of 2,000 millimeters (6.6 ft) diameter were used to make sufficient foundations to the bridge and 484 piles of 1,500 millimeters (4.9 ft) were used for the viaducts.

Pylon tower of the Bandra–Worli Sea Link

The pylons with varying cross section along the height of the tower are an attractive feature included in the design of the Bandra–Worli Sea Link. 

128 meters is the height of the large pylons of the bridge. The pylon towers are designed in such a manner that its cross-section decreases with the height and horizontal grooves are provided in every 3m height of the tower. 

The SKE-100 automatic climbing shutter system of the Doka of Austria was used to provide the custom automatic climbing shutter formwork system in Bandra–Worli Sea Link.

Pre-cast Yard at Bandra–Worli Sea Link

The Pre-cast yard of the Bandra–Worli Sea is situated on the land reclaimed from the sea. The land was used to store the 2342 concrete-steel pre-cast segments required for the project on the bridge during the construction time. 

The capacity of the yard, 470 precast segments, was a limited area and to cope with this the segments were stored as layers in the yard.

Power Supply and Lighting in the Bandra–Worli Sea Link

The Bandra–Worli Sea Link widely makes use of the energy saving illumination systems. An uninterrupted and reliable power supply is provided in the Sea Link with the help of diesel generators and auto mains failure panels.

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