From blueprint to reality: 21.8km Atal Setu connects dreams of Third Mumbai

From the skies, the 21.8-kilometre-long sea-link appears like an umbilical cord that binds the island city of Mumbai to the hinterland – which is apt, for if all goes to plan, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link or the Atal Setu, to be declared open by Prime Minister Modi on Friday, will help birth a Third Mumbai. Leading developer Niranjan Hiranandani, managing director of the Hiranandani Group, who foresaw Mumbai’s northward growth more than 25 years ago when he built integrated townships in Powai and Thane, was one of the early movers buying large land parcels in Navi Mumbai and Raigad. The government should allow market forces to play.” A recent report by Colliers, ‘MMR Infrastructure Upgrading Real Estate,’ projected nearly 9 million sq ft of new office supply opening at the Navi Mumbai end of MTHL over the next three years, largely driven by IT, while on the Mumbai end Worli and Lower Parel in central Mumbai are likely to see 5 million sq ft of new office supply in the same time period. Shirish Patel, one of the three original proponents of New Bombay rues that MTHL has come “50 years too late.” Patel says “Growing eastwards would have helped decongest Mumbai. They feared that eastward growth would open up land and prices could fall in Mumbai.” The engineer who recently co-authored a comprehensive book, ‘6 Metros’ comparing urban planning in New York, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo with Mumbai and New Delhi, strongly advocates that MTHL should integrate public transport so that it goes beyond becoming a showpiece road for Mumbai’s car owners.