MMRC completes tunnelling on one stretch of Colaba-SEEPZ corridor

Amid the nationwide lockdown, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) on Thursday said it has completed tunnelling on one of the stretches on the Colaba-SEEPZ corridor.

While construction activities in the megapolis have been stopped amid the COVID-19 crisis, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has allowed continuation of "critical activities" on major infrastructure projects.

Tunnel boring machine (TBM) Vaitarna-2, which was commissioned on February 2, 2018 from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) launching shaft, has completed its longest run at Mumbai Central station with 2,730 RCC rings, MMRC said in a statement.

"This part of the tunneling was very challenging particularly because the alignment runs very close to old and dilapidated buildings and also parallel to the sea shore and very shallow ground water table which is around 1-4 meters below only," MMRC Managing Director Ranjit Singh Deol said.

This was the 28th tunnel breakthrough in the metro-3 corridor, and Vaitarna-2 has become the first TBM in the corridor to complete the stretch of 4-km in a single drive, the authority said.

"Another challenge posed before the team was the outbreak of COVID-19. However, we ensured physical distancing and strictly followed all the guidelines stipulated by the state government," he added.

The 4-km long tunnelling includes construction of five underground stations beginning from Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Mumbai Central through Kalbadevi, Girgaon and Grant Road. A total of 17 TBMs have been deployed for the tunnelling work on this project.

Last year, MMRC had claimed that 100 per cent tunnelling work of the project will be completed by September 2020.

The nearly Rs 30,000 crore project will connect Cuffe Parade business district in the extreme south of the city to SEEPZ in the north-central with 26 underground and one at-grade station.