Mumbai: The first tunnel of the underground Metro-3 line was completed on Monday. The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) made a breakthrough near the metro construction site, T2 terminal of Mumbai International Airport. The breakthrough occurred after nearly nine months, covering a distance of 1.26 km from Marol to the T2 terminal. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and top Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) officials attended the event to celebrating the achievement.The breakthrough occurred on Monday afternoon, and the workers hoisted the national flag after the first part of TBM — the cutter head — made its way out from the wall.
“This is a historic day for the city. I got a chance to see the real definition of breakthrough,” said Mr Fadnavis. He added, “Already three sophisticated TBMs are in use and STEC has six such TBMs. Today, I told them to bring the other three machines so that the work can be completed faster.”
The Asian Age was the first to report about the TBM breakthrough in its August 31 edition. The TBM, which was named after the river Wanganga, was commissioned on January 8 from Pali ground in Marol towards CSMIA T2 station. The machine took 259 days, tunnelling 4.6 metres on a daily basis. The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is implementing the project, revealed that the tunnels were made beneath the operational Metro line 1 and Sahar elevated road.
Presently, the MMRC has managed to complete 9km out of the 33.5-km-long tunnel. Of 17 TBMs, 14 have been commissioned. Also, five TBMs have crossed the 1-km mark.
Meanwhile, Mr Fadnavis stressed that the infrastructure of the city would change vastly in next three years with projects such as the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL), Coastal Road, Versova Bandra Sea Link (VBSL) and upcoming metro lines.
