Bandra-Worli Sealink Bridge

The Bandra-Worli Sealink was finally inaugrated today by Sonia Gandhi

The bridge will be toll-free until 5th July. Sonia Gandhi traversed the length and  breadth of the bridge which is named after Rajiv Gandhi.

Length of bridge (4.7km): 63 times the Qutub Minar

Weight of bridge (6.7L tonnes): 50,000 African elephants

424 cables for main roadway: can support 900 tons each

Length of steel wire used (37,680km): Nearly the earth’s circumference

Concrete used: 2.3 lakh cubic metres

Height of main towers (126m): 43-storey buidling

Pile caps: Bridge rests on 135 pile caps, the largest being 55 m in length and 55 m in breadth (half a football field)

Peak-hour sweat: 4,000 workers and 150 engineers

The roundabout distance that used to take 35-40 minutes to cover, will now be covered in 6 minutes.

Its taken 10 years to complete this marvel, and a sum of whopping 1600 crores. Here’s a small video which explains the architecture better:

 

with power comes arrogance …

manmohan singh was sworn-in yesterday as the new pm of india. it was a momentous occasion as the 15th lok sabha had given a decisive verdict in favour of congress(i) and since 1971, manmohan singh is the first pm to complete a full 5 yrs term and voted back to power.

since 1991, this has been cong’s best performance with a whopping 200+ seats. and this unpredicted success has probably gone to their head. they are suddenly found distancing themselves from their allies. while dmk was over-expecting by asking for so many ministries, but yet cong should try and mend their ways and politely disagree. no point in angering your allies, they will come handy during crisis and approval of important bills.

similarly, even rjd and sp should be kept in good humour. lalu yadav has been behind the cong and supported sonia gandhi during worst of crisis like ‘foreign origin’ issue etc. i surely do believe that cong should try and keep all their allies happy by distributing the goodies with everybody. cong should share the pie with everybody and not just make them eat humble pie. cong is in danger of falling into the power-trap, coz with power comes arrogance…