Bandra Worli Sea Link is finally ready to ferry vehicles

[Sam Kapasi]

I live 800m away from the Bandra end of the sealink. My work is on the other side.

I face the same question that many will - will I use this sealink everyday and what will it cost me?

Question 1 was answered by using the sealink yesterday and today. I was able to save exactly one hour of my day, despite all the freeloaders on the sealink.
It is my estimation that by the day after tomorrow, the traffic on the sealink will drop by 50%.

So yes, I will use this sealink on a daily basis.

Now for the economics.
--------------------------------------------

I was informed earlier that a single journey (referred to as a trip by the authorities) would be Rs. 50/- and a return trip would be Rs. 75/-

Last night I was handed over the following on my way home.



Clearly somebody has made some mistakes here.

Let's analyse this sheet. There is no mention of a return fare - single payment for back and forth made on the same day.
However I can confirm to you (from the information I got from the toll booth this morning) that in fact there are 3 choices

• One ticket one way for Rs. 50/- (to be used once)
• A return ticket for Rs. 75/- (allowing you one forth and one back journey within the same day)
• A day ticket for Rs. 125/- (allowing you multiple back and forth journeys within the same day)

However the handbill handed over has neglected to mention both the return ticket and the day ticket.

First mistake.

Now let us consider the further options.

• A monthly pass valid for any number of trips within the month. Rs. 2500/-

This would make no sense for office-goers who generally go up and down once a day for 25 days in a month.
75X25 = 1875/-
Monthly pass = 2500/-

Yes, a couple of extra journeys may happen during the month, but once will have to calculate his average before spending the extra amount. But honestly, I would have expected the monthly pass to cost Rs. 2000/- not 2500/-

Of course you have a convenience of not having to make sure you have cash in hand every single time you travel.

But here is the clincher! - The monthly pass for the next month will be issued on the 25th of each month only. This means that the monthly pass is valid from the 1st of the month to the end of the month!

So what if I've been in Delhi till the 10th of August and wish to buy a monthly pass from the 11th of August to the 10th of september? Not possible. Buy tickets.

Second and third mistake.

Coming back to the leaflet:
You also have the choice of buying bulk tickets, 50 trips or 100 trips in advance. Convenient for sure!

• Rs. 2250/- for 50 trips, each ticket valid for a ONE WAY journey. (Now costs Rs. 45/- one way)
• Rs. 4000/- for 100 trips in advance (Now costs Rs. 40/- per trip one way)

Say what?? So by paying 4000 or 2250 bucks in advance toll, I will now spend 80 or 90 bucks a day for my return journey, that would have cost me Rs. 75/- in the first place?

Fourth mistake!


I'm going to give my driver some money in advance and buy Rs75/- return trip tickets everday. Even if I make a few extra trips in that month (for parties or a movie) it still is a lot cheaper that this bulk purchase!


Your opinions?

[phamilyman]

Perfecto analysis unless there are separate tag lanes/cash & bulk ticket lanes. Some babu somewhere has unfortunately slept on his job!

I'm sure they'd learn over time!

[GTO]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

I live 800m away from the Bandra end of the sealink. My work is on the other side.

I face the same question that many will - will I use this sealink everyday and what will it cost me?

Question 1 was answered by using the sealink yesterday and today. I was able to save exactly one hour of my day, despite all the freeloaders on the sealink.

Also the savings in fuel. Shorter distance + better fuel economy. It's definitely worth it, despite being a tad overpriced. IIRC, the 30 km bombay - lonavla expressway toll is 71 bucks only.

[flyingspur]

Just in case you guys are wondering about traffic patterns, lemme give you what is pretty much a ringside account, blow by blow.

Day 1 (01/07):

Absolute failure of any systems any of the authorities tried to put in place. Newspaper pictures speak for themselves, and many of you experienced it first hand. Someone went at 0230 and it was bumper to bumper.

Reason? I think it was a Wednesday, and we all know how pathetic Mahim church junction is on this one day of the week. So no point blaming the glimmer of hope in office-goers that they might make it across quicker via the bridge. Also, a lot of people who wanted a ride on it anyway, so add them to the traffic as well.

Day 2 (02/07):

BTW, this was the day I made my first trip. Had a morning trip to the airport at 5am (i.e approx 24 hrs after it had opened), on my way back home I saw a clear road so I gunned it. I think I made it from the Bandra side to the Worli side in about 1.5 minutes. (LOL?)

During morning office hours, the Bandra approach was quite clear. Maybe about 200m of slow-moving traffic. During evening office hours, Lilavati junction was jampacked. However, the Reclamation approach leading to the Sealink took the cake - atleast a kilometre of standstill, bumper-to-bumper traffic. And it was the same situation from 7pm-1am.

Reason? I attribute this to hordes of motorists who wanted a first drive on the new bridge and expected traffic to be much better than the first day. But basically they all created and contributed to a big mess.

Day 3 (03/07):

Today, traffic has been smooth throughout the 24 hours. Internally Bandra is ruined, of course, but the Reclamation approach to the bridge has been clear of any traffic whatsoever for most part of the day. Even as I write this, the traffic is hardly there.

Reason? My take is most of the folks who wanted their first fukkat ride have all "been there, done that". Which leaves the office-goers. Who are commuting rather smoothly, atleast on the Bandra approach of the bridge.

So if any of you guys still haven't been on the bridge, I strongly suggest avoiding the evenings for obvious reasons, whereas early mornings, late mornings and afternoons should be good. And yes, once the toll comes in effect, I'm sure traffic will be mooth-flowing. Either ways, I will keep you people posted.

[abhijitaparadh]

May be OT :
Mods please remove if not appropriate.

Got this as mail forward, dont know the truth value.

I am speechless after seeing this picture.

[flyingspur]

If it's true, somebody snipe him.

Back to the topic, an update. Traffic built up again at the Reclamation end. I think it'll go on till the toll starts

[hillram]

Im speechless too..what a pollution in store?
Btw Congrats to all the mumbaikars for the Sea link which im sure is equvalent to Sydney harbour Bridge or the Golden Gate...im sure it will soon be iconic.

[straight6]

Sam, they have deliberately kept the rates of the monthly pass more than cheaper. I forgot the reason but I remember reading that in the paper before it opened to public.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by flyingspur

If it's true, somebody snipe him.

What i found ridiculous was when i went over the sea-link i saw atleast 5 cars make U-TURNS in the middle of the 2+2 lane bridge!!

Would rather have people peeing on it than making u-turns if i had to make a choice

cya
R

[dhrishikesh]

As Saturday & Sunday will be the last two toll-free days & there will be a lot more traffic of free comers, traffic police have been declared that the cars taking unofficial U-turns will be fined Rs.100/-

[dhrishikesh]

As Saturday & Sunday will be the last two toll-free days, Congress has started the free bus service from Dadar Railway Station for those who wants to have a look @ it & also have a fun.
As there are total two mini buses to this picnic, there are many passengers waiting under the bridge of Dadar Railway Station.
Definitely a vote bank policy & also a good game in politics !!!

[razrman]

I had to travel to Worli a couple of days before. Having heard a lot of stories about traffic jams and seeing the utter chaos on day one, i was very dicy. But i decided to take the sea-link, just to experience what it was like. And i must say, it was a rather good one.
It took me just 8 mins from Bandra tool-booth to Worli exit point at 2.45pm. While returning at 6.15pm, i again dared to use the sea-link and was pretty surprised when it just took me 12 mins to cross. This i think is a lot of time saved and i wont mind paying the 50 bucks for a one way trip if i can save so much time (not even mentioning the much better view/drive you get). Overall, i think its worked out well and will only improve once the toll collection starts and the initial excitement wears off.

[ada]

The sea link is beautiful, an engineering marvel, forget how much time will be saved and traffic jams etc. Here are some pics --

[Sam Kapasi]

I call today "proper" as today was the first day the sealink had paying customers.

I left home at 10.06.

Reached the sealink toll booth at 10.13. I purchased a Rs. 75 round trip ticket. No waiting, it was efficient and quick and similar to the toll booth at the pune expressway.

I reached worli sea face at 10.17. No obstructions, normal moving traffic.

The turn around was further elongated and we wasted 10 minutes here.

Regardless I was at work at 10.45 - a mere 39 minutes later.
My average commute was 1 hour 20 minutes on a monday morning.

[revvhed]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

What i found ridiculous was when i went over the sea-link i saw atleast 5 cars make U-TURNS in the middle of the 2+2 lane bridge!!

Would rather have people peeing on it than making u-turns if i had to make a choice

cya
R

i have a better option .. lets pee on those making the illegal u-turns ..