After that, we drove a short distance across the river to Panaji, or Panjim. We drove over the enormous Atal Setu bridge, named for late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to cross the Mandovi River. This four-lane bridge, the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in India, is 5.1 kilometers long, weighs approximately 2.5 lakh tons, is 70 meters high at its highest point, and cost INR 600 crores to construct.

This is the country’s second Atal Setu bridge, the first being a 592-meter cable-stayed bridge in Basholi, Jammu and Kashmir. This is the second Atal Setu bridge. Both of these bridges were unintentionally opened by late Union Defense Minister and former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.