The tenders for the ₹17,843-crore Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) project are expected to be submitted in the next one-and-a-half months and this year final tender would be hopefully awarded to the contractors, said the Commissioner of Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), UPS Madan.

The MTHL is one of the most ambitious projects in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), that will improve the connectivity between island city of Mumbai and surrounding hinterland with the help of a bridge on the open seas. The 22-km-long bridge will span across the Mumbai Bay from Sewri in central Mumbai to Nhava, in Raigarh district. Urban and transportation planners have said in their reports that it would lead to the creation of third Mumbai. Veteran transportation planner Arun Mokashi pointed that the Mumbai and Navi Mumbai cities have been well established and with the MTHL moving from the drawing board to actual construction on the ground, third Mumbai, which is the area beyond Panvel, will be developed.

Planners had envisaged the sea bridge many decades ago and it has been in the planning stages since 2004. Development of MTHL will have a long-lasting impact on the urbanisation and transportation system of MMR, he said.

Madan said that from the planning point of view, a large area will come up for development, which is currently underdeveloped in the hinterland. If you have such a huge supply of available land for development, which is closer to the Mumbai then it will have an impact on the real estate development in the whole region around Mumbai. .

He said that from the transportation perspective, passengers from Mumbai going towards Pune and Goa will travel much lesser distance due to MTHL. Currently, these passengers use Vashi bridge, which is very congested. It will also considerably reduce the burden on the internal roads of Mumbai city.

Madan said that out of ₹15,500 crore project loan, the first tranche ₹7,900 crore has been issued by Japan International Cooperation Agency. It is hoped that the construction work will start this year. The possibility of any geological surprise while constructing the bridge are much less as more than 1,000 boreholes have been drilled for the exact understanding of the strata, he said.