Mumbai, Jan 14 (PTI) The first Orthotropic Steel Deck (OSD) span of the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link (MTHL) project, which will link south Mumbai with Navi Mumbai, was launched successfully on Friday, officials said.The span, 119 meters in length, weighs 1,331 metric tons, said a release by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).It was part of `Package-1" which involves the construction of a 10.38 km long bridge across the Mumbai Bay including Sewri Interchange at Mumbai side.The civil work of Package-1 is awarded to the consortium of Larsen & Toubro and IHI Infrastructure Systems Co Ltd (Japan).The MMRDA, a Maharashtra government agency, is the implementing authority for the 21.8 km six-lane MTHL project, financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).When completed, it would be the longest sea bridge in India and would cater to 70,000 vehicles daily."The OSD is a Steel Deck Superstructure (strengthened or stiffened both transversely and longitudinally) which will carry the vehicular load more efficiently and improve the load-carrying capacity of the bridge as compared to concrete superstructure," the release said.An OSD bridge has less self-weight but a stronger structure than concrete or composite girder bridges."180 meters OSD, which is applied to the MTHL Bridge, is the world"s longest level of span length that requires advanced manufacturing technology and severe quality control," the release stated.The deck segments were separated into six to eight blocks of 30 MT maximum and delivered to the site in total 33 shipments by ocean liner, the release said.The blocks were assembled at the project site."Once completed, the project will reduce the travel time from South Mumbai to Navi Mumbai from 120 minutes to merely 20 minutes," said Saito Mitsunori, chief representative, JICA India. PTI KK KRK KRK