Don't you just swell with pride when you drive down the Mahim Causeway, touch Bandra and spot the latest steel and concrete addition to our city gleam in the distance?
Don't you just swell with pride when you drive down the Mahim Causeway, touch Bandra and spot the latest steel and concrete addition to our city gleam in the distance? The Bandra-Worli Sea Link is high and mighty by day, gorgeous by night, and makes the sea look even more majestic during high tide...
Even if you missed the inaugural opening in June this year, you could drive down to Bandra Reclamation or Worli Sea face between 6 pm and 7 pm. It's during this one hour that the 147 lights come on, on both sides of the bridge. As of now the lights are switched on manually from three substations still under construction. In January 2010, once the work is complete, it will be an automatic process.
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The Bandra-Worli Sea Link as seen from Bandra Reclamation between 6.30 and 7 pm, just as the lights come onu00a0
PIC/Sameer Markande |
Vivek Ghanekar, superintending engineer, Maharashtra State Road Development Corp Ltd, says that since the number of vehicles on the bridge is nearly 30 to 40 lakh in the evenings, the intensity of the lights is between 50 and 60 Lux.
"30 Lux is the normal required intensity for evening traffic. But since the lights have to travel through the many cables which hold the bridge in place, we need more intensity abundant lighting," he explains.
Assistant resident engineer, Basil Manoj, throws more light on the matter. He tells us that the lights on the bridge are of two types: the regular street lights which are Bajaj lights, 250 Watts each and placed every 40 metres on the main bridge (the sides) and every 27 metres at the top (where the cables begin); and the floodlights which belong to a German company, Schreder: focus lamps for the cables, tower illuminators for the pylon (pillars on which the bridge is suspended) and under the bridge for navigation purposes. Post midnight, since the traffic slows down, the intensity of the lights is reduced. The lights go off at 6 am.
So drive down to Bandra Reclamation at 6.30 pm with coffee. Watch the lights come on at the Sea Link. Take the BWSL and drive to the other side of town. Tuck into dinner and maybe catch a late night movie, so you're in time to see lights dimmed at the Sea Link while driving back. And next morning, if you're not groggy, be up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise over the Sea Link. And now you can turn 30.
