Bandra - Worli Sea link, an over hyped project

The Mumbai commuter’s travel time between the Bandra flyover and Love Grove Junction at Worli is set to come down from 35 minutes to seven minutes from today, with the inauguration of the 5.6 km Sea Link, including India’s first cable-stayed bridge in the open sea. Yes, but only if wishes are horses. The seven minute time frame for the 7.7 km distance between the two points was promised by the Maharashtra government; like most government promises, this one will remain a pipe dream. The reason is that the speed limit on the sea link has already been reduced from the original 80 kph to 50 kph. While even that would be a vast improvement on the peak-hour crawl on the existing land route, the problem begins at the point where the Sea Link meets the Worli Sea Face at (believe it or not) a 90-degree angle. The one-km stretch towards Love Grove Junction that then connects to the south and central business districts has a speed limit of 30 kph, five traffic signals, and an equal number of diversions and curves. That last stretch alone could take 10-15 minutes, and cause traffic to back up onto the sea link. And, a motorist would have to pay Rs 50 (the one-way toll) to save perhaps 15 minutes of travel time. There are no answers on why no city planner could work out channels for efficient traffic dispersal. There were plans to build a flyover in Worli to take on the traffic spilling from the bridge. There were also plans to build a 4.3 km flyover at Peddar Road in South Mumbai to carry the traffic from the sea link. None of these projects has seen the light of day as the state government has failed to obtain environment clearances. There has also been talk of a sky walk to solve the problems of pedestrians, but that too hangs fire. It is amazing how the bridge, which adds such an impressive dimension to Mumbai’s skyline and held so much promise for easing the traffic woes of the city’s western suburbs, can be a victim of such poor planning. It is not that time was short for a proper traffic dispersal plan. The bridge has taken eight years to build, four more than scheduled, because of design changes, environment clearance delays and a slew of law suits. And this is just the first of the three-phase Western Freeway project. Work on the other two phases, linking Worli to Haji Ali and Haji Ali to Nariman Point, has not started yet. While the second phase will take another four years to build, the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation is still awaiting cabinet approval for its revised proposal for the third phase. By way of comparison, China’s 36 km Hangzhou Bay Bridge, the world’s longest sea-crossing bridge, over seven times the length of the Mumbai bridge, took all of four years. Also, that country has built seven sea links in the past six years.

Bottom line :

The way India goes about with things is really pathetic, and it needs lot of improvement, the Worli - Sea link Bridge is an over hyped project.

Time = Life

Its often said, you should not waste time, and rightly so.

Think about it.

If you are wasting your time right now, you are actually wasting your life.

I believe, every person should have some goals in life, and should be well directed, disciplined, he should know his priorities and follow them, he should give priority to his priorities.

Following are some of the ways you can save your time :

1 ) Do things which are important first. If you have to do 20 things in a day. Select the things, which will help you realize your goals, and leave the other things, in this way, you won`t miss on doing things that actually are important, to get to your goal.

2 ) Delegate the not so important stuff. Do not try to do everything yourself, this doesn`t work.

3 ) Plan things, organize, re organize. It is observed that 15 minutes of proper planning can save you an hour. That is a good deal in my books.

4 ) Learn to say - No. Actually, many people have a difficulty saying no to people or things. They give in to peer pressure, well that is bad. I do not mean to say, you have got to be mean or too self centered all the time, but there sometimes saying no is important.

5 ) Some people work best during the day, some during the evenings, night. It has been observed, if you work according to your own body rhythm, you can be much more efficient.

I am sure, if you follow, the above tips, you can save a lot of time and energy, and get time to indulge in your hobbies, and have some time for your self too.

It is no fun going about in your life, wasting time, as you will end up no where.

Bottom line :

Time wasted = Life wasted