How Bentley Software Is Helping Keep Mumbai’s Massive Sea Bridge on Track

• Proeksa Meas
• 17 October 2026
• Construction Focus
• 63 Views

Mumbai’s Versova-Bandra Sea Link (VBSL), a 17.17-kilometer, eight-lane bridge set to become India’s second-longest, is being built with the help of digital project management software designed to keep a hugely complex construction effort organized and on schedule.

Once finished, the bridge will connect Versova to Bandra and is expected to cut commute times sharply for daily travelers, turning what can be a 90-minute trip into one lasting roughly 15 to 20 minutes.

As of mid-2026, the project has reached about 32 percent civil progress after nearly seven years of work, with construction now shifting from foundation-related engineering into major marine installation, including the erection of pre-cast bridge segments over the Arabian Sea.

The project’s cost has been revised upward to roughly ₹18,120 crore, and its completion date has been pushed to May 2028. Original contractor Reliance Infrastructure and its partner Astaldi were replaced amid delays, with Webuild and APCO Infratech now carrying out the work. Maharashtra’s chief minister has directed the current contractor to accelerate progress after the pace fell short of internal targets.

Constructing a bridge over open sea comes with steep challenges, including rough tides, monsoon seasons, coordination among more than a dozen agencies and contractors, environmental concerns, and the needs of local fishing communities. Pandemic-related disruptions and contractor issues have already pushed the timeline back several years from its original 2023 target.

To manage it all, the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation teamed up with ABM Knowledgeware and NTT Data Business Solutions, using a suite of tools from infrastructure software company Bentley Systems. Their platform brings together design, scheduling, and cost data so teams can plan and adjust in real time, with capabilities that include 4D/5D construction simulation, cross-team collaboration on shared project files, lifecycle tracking of infrastructure assets, and dashboards that give stakeholders visibility into progress, risks, and delays as they happen.

Project organizers report meaningful gains from the digital approach. Document approvals that once took a week now take about a day, paper usage has dropped sharply, design quality and version control have improved, and teams are able to make faster, more informed decisions.

Beyond faster commutes, the bridge is expected to ease traffic congestion, cut vehicle emissions, and improve access to jobs, healthcare, and education across the city. Backers say the project shows how large-scale infrastructure can be delivered more efficiently when built on a foundation of shared digital data, even as the timeline itself continues to face real-world pressure to speed up.

• Technology and Engineering
• bridge
• Bentley
• Bentley Systems