Traffic in Mumbai, India is notoriously bad, so drivers might rejoice when the Mumbai Trans-Harbor Link Bridge is finished. Traffic jams are a serious problem, and the bridge hopes to alleviate them to some degree.

There are 18 million people in Mumbai. One of the managers of the Daiwa Mutual Fund in Mumbai suggested that infrastructure in the city moves along but it’s ultimately not going anywhere. While repairs and upgrades are constantly made, they are downplayed by poor infrastructure in other parts of the city. The Daiwa Mutual Fund is a unit of the second largest brokerage in Japan. Mumbai is already quite an international city.

Moreover, the project certainly suggests that India is a growing market for automakers. However, one has to question whether or not the country will become a major importer. India has a developed indigenous automotive industry. As American and European car companies continue to look for overseas markets, they might turn their eyes towards Indian drivers.

The 22 km long bridge will connect the island with the Navi Mumbai district on the mainland. These improvements have to be made before 2014. A new airport will begin operation in that year, and the airport would probably increase pressures on the current transit system.

Construction work could cost as much as $2.5 billion. According to the commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, the bridge would boast two train tracks in addition to a six-lane highway. As well as serving the new airport, the bridge is supposed to aid in the development of the Navi district. This should help to alleviate the population pressures that Mumbai faces.

Dubai and Shanghai are considered regional business centers that compete with Mumbai. The city of Mumbai hasn’t received a new bridge to the mainland in over a decade. Driving between the existing airport and the Nariman Point financial district is getting increasingly difficult. Travel times have grown by as much as an hour over the last ten years, according to Mumbai First.

Fixing these travel problems could help the city to compete with Shanghai and Dubai. India might very well rival other countries in the region. Most importantly, the bridge improvements can help the city to cut back on the insane amount of time that many drivers spend in traffic. One might wonder what influence sales of the new Tata Nano will have on traffic in India as a whole.