Sewri-Nhava Sheva sea link work to begin in 6 months

The Maharashtra government on Thursday said the work on 22km-long sea link between Sewri and Nhava Sheva would start within the next six months.

"The work of the Sea Link will start within six months and all hurdles for the project will be solved before that," Minister for Public Works Department Jaydatta Kshirsagar said in Mumbai.

Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, the implementing authority for the project, gave a presentation of the project at Mantralaya on Thursday.

The project would be completed in three years at an estimated cost of Rs 7,600 crore (Rs 76 billion), Kshirsagar said.

The much delayed Sea Link would connect the city with neighbouring Navi Mumbai. Earlier, the project was stalled twice due to lack of funds.

The Ambani brothers had independently proposed to develop the Sea Link on Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) basis. Younger brother Anil offered to build the bridge on BOOT basis and recover the money in 10 years, while Mukesh wanted a longer time to recover the investment.

The government turned down both proposals as not being viable and decided to build it with the help of MSRDC.