The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) has completed nearly 20 km of tunnelling, which is around 38%, of the Mumbai Metro 3. This was the fifth breakthrough achieved by a tunnel boring machine (TBM) at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA)-T2 Metro station on Wednesday. This was also the site of the first breakthrough in September last year.
S.K. Gupta, director (projects), MMRC, said, “We have completed around 38% of tunnelling and 35% civil works of the project. In all, there will be 32 breakthroughs. These are all major milestones for our project.” There are 17 TBMs deployed to construct the entire length of the 33-km corridor, for which the tunnelling work spans across 52.21 km.
The TBM, named Wainganga 3, was commissioned on April 2, 2018, and built a 1.31-km tunnel from the launch shaft at Marol Naka, in 318 days. The TBM is part of package 7, which is being constructed by the consortium of Larsen & Toubro and Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd.
Of the five TBM breakthroughs, three have occurred in this package, which will connect the international terminal of the airport to SEEPZ via MIDC and Marol Naka. The total length of the tunnel in the package is 7.07 km of which 50% of tunnelling has been completed till date. In January, the MMRC achieved a twin tunnel breakthrough at Dadar station. Officials said the next one is likely to be at Sahar.
Ashwini Bhide, managing director, MMRC, said they are ecstatic over completing another tunnel breakthrough in the same package. “This particular route will provide easy interchanging facility for commuters where it will get connected with two Metro corridors: Metro line 1 and Metro line 6,” she said.
