Mumbai, Feb 20 (IANS): In a milestone, the MMRDA installed the first 40-metre-long composite steel girder span to connect the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) with the Eastern Freeway at two levels, officials said here on Monday.

The girder, weighing 130 tonnes, was erected on the Sewri Interchange side, and is a segmental box girder, cast in situ concrete decks of around 40 metre length spans in all the zones, barring a steel composite span across the Eastern Freeway.

The 10.38 kms of the MTHL Package 1 is divided into 3 zones - Marine around 5.75 km, Intertidal around 4.13 km, and Land or the Sewri Interchange.

There are 8 ramps on the Land zone linking the MTHL main bridge with the Eastern Freeway (4 ramps), the Sewri-Worli Elevated Bridge, and Mumbai Port Trust road underneath with 2 ramps each.

The MTHL is a 6-lane road bridge plus 2 emergency lanes, spanning the harbour between Sewri on the Mumbai side and Chirle in Navi Mumbai on the mainland, and would be longest sea bridge in India after completion, said Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority Metropolitan Commissioner S.V.R. Srinivas.

Expected to be ready by December 2023, the MTHL will be 22-km-long comprising 5.5 km viaducts on land on both sides and the 16.5 km bridge running over the sea, with 70,000 vehicles likely to zoom across it daily in both directions.

Estimated to cost around Rs 18,000 crore, the project is being implemented on a Design-Build basis with a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

"The MMRDA is working towards changing the face of the city and surroundings by integrating its existing road-based transport network with other infra projects. The MTHL will be the engineering marvel that will decongest Mumbai and connect it to the mainland," Srinivas said.