MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis took a test drive on the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) corridor, whose entire deck work was completed on Wednesday.

Seventy long spans comprising Orthotropic Steel Deck (OSD) having span lengths varying from 65m to 180m have been erected in Package-1 and Package-2.
The erection of all concrete superstructure spans in the 22km-long project have also been completed.
With this, the construction of superstructure in all spans in marine and land portion connecting Mumbai to mainland is completed.
Thus a specialised and challenging work is getting completed.
The completion of deck slab work ensures the vehicle will be able to travel from one of the bridge to another without any hurdles
Fadnavis took the steering wheel while Shinde was seated besides him in the Lexus car after the event was held to mark the occasion of completion of deck slab work.
He drove towards Navi Mumbai from KM 10 of the bridge.
He traveled almost 14 kM (both, 7+7 up and down) in 40 minutes.
The 22-km-long bridge that connects Sewri in Mumbai to Chirle in Navi Mumbai is schedule to open before the end of this year.
Acknowledging cooperation of the central government, Shinde said, “The bridge when ready will be inaugurated at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
Shinde said the bridge will be a “game changer” and will help spur socio economic growth of the region.
He also revealed plans to set up a growth centre in Navi Mumbai end and will help create “Third Mumbai”.
Fadnavis said that prime minister’s cooperation ensured that there were no major hurdles in gaining access to loans from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and also environmental clearances as the bridge was built in eco-sensitive areas with patches of mangrove and presence of flamingos.
He also said that this bridge will help achieve the target of a trillion dollar economy besides fueling Maharashtra’s economy for the next 20 years.
Metropolitan commissioner SVR Srinivas pointed out that in two years nearly 56 percent progress was achieved in the execution of the bridge as against the target of 35 percent.