With the promise of better infrastructure in urban centres and improved healthcare in rural areas, Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) declared open the Bandra-Worli sea link here on Tuesday.

Offering a vision of “Bharat Nirman,” she said schemes like the Urban Renewal Mission and the Rural Health Mission, proved that power was not an end for the UPA, but was instead the means to serve the people.

Ms. Gandhi was addressing a mammoth gathering at the Rang Sharda grounds in suburban Bandra, after unveiling two plaques at the entrance of the bridge.

This being her first visit to the city after the victory in the Lok Sabha polls, she thanked the people of Mumbai for their support.

She congratulated the people behind the engineering feat, from the engineers to the labourers, and dedicated the structure to the citizens of Mumbai.

It is hoped that the 16.5-billion-rupee (340-million-dollar) eight-lane freeway will help cut the 40-minute journey between the suburbs of Bandra and Worli to just eight minutes.

But as the bridge opens on Tuesday, to ease the bottleneck of honking cars, lorries and motorbikes on the mainland, there are hopes, too, that as well as showing off India’s engineering prowess, it can inspire other projects elsewhere.

Currently, about 125,000 vehicles criss-cross Mumbai north to south in each direction every day, according to the bridge’s builders, the Hindustan Construction Company Limited.

As private car ownership increases on the back of India’s economic boom and more people move to cities, 250 more vehicles are expected to drive the route every day, it added.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) estimates that more than 500 billion dollars’ worth of investment will flow towards India’s infrastructure sector by 2012, to upgrade or build more roads, ports, railway lines and airports.

“The opportunities to develop a significant business in India are extremely promising for construction firms if they have carefully selected local partners and structured contracts sensibly to maximise tax benefits,” PwC’s Bhamidipathi said.

Fun facts about the Bandra-Worli sea link

• Bajaj Electricals has received the Rs 9-crore (Rs 90 million) illumination contract for the Bandra-Worli sea link project. Needless to say, the lighting will add to the beauty of the bridge.
• A toll plaza with 16 lanes and an approximate length of 410 metres is provided at the Bandra end. The toll plaza will be equipped with state-of-the-art toll collection system.
• The construction team worked in the project is like a mini-United Nations. Several teams of engineers from China, Egypt, Canada, Switzerland, Britain, Serbia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and the Philippines have worked on the project.
• The engineering marvel Bandra-Worli sea link, which opens on June 30, is likely to consume 1,000 KW power a day, enough to meet the electricity requirement of 100 households.
• Bajaj Electricals has got the Rs 9 crore (Rs 90 million) illumination job of the 5.6 kilometer-long bridge, which is going to be a tourist spot in the island city.
  Power for illuminating the bridge would be supplied by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport and Reliance Power.
• The bridge will house diesel generator sets and auto mains failure panels to cater to critical load like, monitoring, surveillance and communication equipment emergency services like aviation obstruction lights.