Danish consulting engineer Ramboll has won a contract for the detailed design of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link, which will be India’s longest sea bridge when it is complete in 2022.
The partly cable-stayed bridge, which will join Mumbai with the satellite city of Navi Mumbai, will carry and eight-lane highway with for 21.8km.
Ramboll will also be offering technical support to the main contractor for the work, a joint venture between Tata Projects and Daewoo of South Korea. The project will provide full-time employment for 50 Ramboll bridge engineers in India, the UK and Denmark during the design and construction phase.
Other responsibilities include geotechnical studies, the design of the foundations, columns and superstructure as well as supervision of the building site.
Lars Thorbek, global division director for major crossings, said in a press statement: "The project is in line with Ramboll’s new strategy to extend our activities with major crossings, bridges and tunnels globally and will help strengthen our position as a significant international player in bridge design."
The total price for the project is estimated to be $2.2bn. Construction will begin in the middle of 2018.
It is estimated that in the first year of operation the bridge will cater to 62,000 passenger cars a day, which would increase to around 200,000 in the 30 years of operation, assuming the Navi Mumbai International Airport will have become operational.
The idea of building a southern link to relieve the pressure on Mumbai has been under discussion, and periodically under tender, over the past 40 years.
The last attempt was in 2011, when Arup and KPMG were appointed to carry out a feasibility study prior to letting the scheme as a public-private partnership.
The tender for the scheme later failed after none of the consortiums put in a bid by the required date.
Image: Mumbai Harbour, where the bridge will cross (Wikimedia Commons)
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