"We will not allow two and three-wheelers to ply on the bridge," Sanjay Barve, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) told mediapersons on Monday.
Without elaborating the reason for taking such an action, which might contract the toll revenue, Barve said the move would ease traffic on the bridge.
Half of the bridge will be opened on Tuesday, while the remaining work to complete the other half might take up to the year-end, HCC Chairman and Managing Director Ajit Gulabchand said.
HCC is constructing the bridge under the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation. The bridge would provide an additional moving outlet from the island city to the Western suburbs and thereby providing the much-needed relief to the congested Mahim causeway, which records movement of around 1.25 lakh public vehicles in a day.
The Bandra-Worli sea link project was conceived in the 1990s but plagued by a series of Public Interest Litigations from fishermen and environmentalists.
The work on the project could not take off till October 2004.
Agitations, however, forced MSRDC to make drastic changes (to the tune of 80 per cent) in the design of the bridge, which in turn, escalated the cost of the project by around Rs 350 crore from the initial outlay of Rs 1,306 crore to Rs 1,650 crore.
The new look of the bridge, however, is a treat to the eyes.
Two cable-stayed bridges, one 600-metre-long at Bandra channel and the other twin-tower supported 350-metre-long at the Worli channel, add to its splendid structure.
The height of the cable-stayed tower is equal to a nearly 43-storey building. The eight-lane bridge will reduce the travel time between the two points from 60-90 minutes to 6-8 minutes.
This will save around Rs 100 crore a year in vehicle operating cost alone.
Moreover, illumination of the bridge done at a cost of about Rs 9 crore will add to its attractiveness.
