Mumbai: The 1.31-km tunnel boring work from Pali Ground to Chhatrapati Shivaj Maharaj International Airport was completed within 318 days. With that, the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro-3 corridor witnessed breakthrough of the fifth tunnel boring machine (TBM) at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal at T2 metro station at package 7.
The Wainganga 3 TBM was commissioned on April 2, 2018, from the Pali Ground. On Wednesday, it completed its 1.31-km drive at T2 Metro station. A team of 150 engineers, technicians, and workers worked hard to complete this tunnel boring.
The Wainganga 3 TBM made its way through the rocky strata made of basalt, volcanic breccia, drilling relentlessly for exactly 318 days. It charted its course from under the existing Mumbai Metro line 1 at Marol Naka and Sahar elevated road connecting to CSMIA T2. The 92-m-long Wainganga bored on an average 4.2m daily, shaping the tunnel with 937 RCC cement rings. As of Wednesday, the MMRC had completed about 20 km of tunneling. A total 17 TBMs had been commissioned at ten TBM shafts. “This is a big milestone for the project. This particular route will provide easy interchanging for commuters where it will get connected with two metro corridors – line 1 and line 6,” said Ashwini Bhide, director, MMRC.
The metro 3 corridor in its reach between CSMIA T2 station to the ramp at Aarey Colony will provide access to the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro 1 at Marol Naka and Swami Samarth Nagar Jogesh-wari Kanjurmarg-Vikhroli Metro 6 corridor at Aarey station. It will also provide access to various business hubs like the MIDC and SEEPZ which are not connected by suburban rail.
