With increased population and more people afford vehicles,
Mumbai needed more roads!
When there was no land to build the roads,
they build the road in the sea.
A bridge across the Arabian sea!
The Bandra-Worli Sea Link!
Officially called the Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link.
That's what in your eyes right now.
This sea link took the traffic off Mumbai to sea.
Although these sea links are built initially
to help us get around with greater ease,
they are so spectacular that they are worth a visit.
This engineering marvel became a tourist attraction.
Join me on my driving tour on this beauty!
It is a 5.6 km bridge opened in 2009
And is a record-breaking bridge
for the first eight-lane bridge built in India.
It took ten years for the bridge to be completed
and become fully functional.
It is the first cable-stayed bridge on the open sea in India.
It connects the suburbs of Mumbai to the town.
This cable-stayed bridge solved the traffic problem
at two of the busiest junctions in Mumbai.
It eliminated traffic jams on this route,
and the traffic flow became much smoother.
This brilliantly-engineered beauty has reduced
the travel time by approximately 20 minutes from Bandra to Worli.
There are architectural LED lightings all over the bridge.
It is always lit up,
and that's what counts to its elegance.
The light was pink in color,
as a symbol of support for the breast cancer awareness campaign.
And they lit it purple to increase the awareness
about the neurological disorder called epilepsy.
Oh.. This is the toll tax collection at the sea link.
The payment is different for different types
of vehicles passing through the bridge.
There are monthly and daily passes available for frequent commuters.
You know what.. each cable of this sea link can take a weight of 900 tons.
The total weight of this bridge is equal to
the weight of 50,000 African elephants put together.
They say the length of the steel wires used in work
is equal to the circumference of the earth.
You can see the whole of Mumbai from there.
That's the knockout of it.
Every megacity needs that one idol,
a dashingly defining decoration.
Like San Francisco has its Golden Gate Bridge,
Mumbai has this 'bridge beauty'!