The Worli sea link bridge is a cable stayed bridge and one of the prime attractions of the city. Of late, it has become a site for those who want to quickly leave this earth. So, the authorities installed CCTV’s, posted guards to deter people from jumping into the sea.

bridge over the sea bandra worli sea link mumbai india

Nevertheless, even all these measures hardly deterred people from taking a jump. Recently, a man hired a taxi, and asked the taxi driver to stop as they were going on the sea link bridge. When the driver hesitated, the man said that he wanted to make some coin offerings in the sea. The taxi stopped, the man got down, jumped into the sea and the scared driver sped off.  An alert guard saw the man jumping and called the police.

Initially, the police dismissed it as another one of those suicide cases. However, there were some hitches. The man’s features did not match any of the missing person’s list. There was no sight of the body which should have appeared on the shore. So, they minutely examined the CCTV footage, only to find that the man had jumped, swam, climbed a rock, walked towards the Dadar shore and disappeared.

It would be interesting to speculate on why the man behaved as he did. Perhaps, he had no money for the taxi fare or wanted to cheat the driver. Maybe, on the sea link, he remembered that he had not carried out his exercise that day. Since swimming is a vigorous exercise, he acted on the spur of the moment. It is also possible that he actually wanted to go to Dadar and instead of going in a roundabout way paying a huge taxi fare, he discovered a short cut. A jump, a swim, a short walk, and voila, you are in Dadar.

The sea link has been designed to cut travel time while traveling on road. Taking it a step further, savings on time and money can be effected by offering a combo deal. Go on the sea link, get down at Jumping station 3, and dive. Waiting boats will pick you up and deliver you to the nearest shore. Even if you don’t know swimming, you can wear one of those yellow floating suits and wait for the boat.

An enterprising person can design an entire adventure package, picking you up from your home, dropping you at the sea link from where you can enjoy diving into the sea. If you are afraid of diving, trained personnel will be strategically positioned to push you in. Tourist guides in the boat will point out iconic buildings near the shore line. The journey will end at the Juhu shore with a plate of bhelpuri/panipuri and glasses of ice gola.

It seems the Worli police is now scouring the city for the man. It would be interesting to find out the crime that he will be charged with, if caught. Jumping in the sea without permission? Taking a free ride on the taxi? Most likely, the police will lovingly and informally convince him as to why he should not repeat such an act ever in his life.

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