• Source:JND
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Atal Setu Cracks: The Chief of the Maharashtra Congress, Nana Patole, inspected the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri-Nhava Seva Atal Setu in Navi Mumbai on Friday. He expressed concerns about people's safety after seeing cracks on the recently inaugurated sea bridge, also known as Atal Setu.

However, government officials quickly visited the site and clarified that the cracks actually appeared on the service road connecting the bridge to the city. The 21.8-kilometre-long sea bridge, also known as Atal Setu, was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January of this year. It was built at a cost of over Rs 17,840 crore.

According to visuals shared by the news agency ANI, Patole visited the location and voiced his concerns about the possible threat to public safety posed by the bridge's structural problems.

Meanwhile, Kailash Ganatra, the head of the Atal Setu Project, explained that the cracks were on the service road that connected the newly opened Atal Setu to the city, not the newly opened Atal Setu itself. He claimed that because there was no coastline road, the service road was constructed as a makeshift connecting route at the last minute.

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In response to the appearance of the road cracks, Ganatra remarked that they were only small cracks brought on by the rain and that they would fill up by the evening tomorrow.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) responding to the same said, "It has been noticed that there is no crack in the main part of Atal Setu Bridge but rumours are being spread.  Please don't believe the rumours. Minor cracks have been found on the approach road connecting Atal Setu.   The said footpath is not a part of the main bridge but is a service road connecting the bridge. It is also very important to note that the cracks are not due to structural defects in the project and do not pose any threat to the structure of the bridge."

For those who are unaware, the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), also called the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Sewri Nhava Sheva Atal Setu, is the longest sea bridge in India, length 21.8 kilometres, of which 16.5 km is over the sea. It is an important road, with more than 70,000 vehicles passing over it every day.