The construction of city’s first 33.5-km-long fully underground Metro corridor connecting Colaba-Bandra-Seepz witnessed its first tunnel breakthrough. Wainganga 1, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) used for tunnelling completed its drive of tunnelling between Marol and International Airport at Santacruz.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also witnessed the breakthrough of the first TBM at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Terminal-2 station.
Waiganga-1 (TBM) that was commissioned on January 8, 2018, from Pali ground in Marol completed its first drive of tunnelling 1.26-km. This is considered to be an important and significant achievment towards the completion of the Metro-3 project. “It is a result of blood and sweat expended by a team of 250 engineers, technical and mechanical workers together,” Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) executing the Metro project said in a statement.
Wainganga-1, made its way through rocky strata made of basalt, breccia and other material drilling relentlessly for 259 days to attain the breakthrough. The 92-metre-long Wainganga bored, on an average, 4.6 metre daily shaping the significant tunnel.
In total, around 17 TBM are to be used for tunnelling of Metro-3 project that is expected to handle more than 15 lakh passengers daily once made operational by the year 2022.
Present at the breakthrough, Fadnavis said, “The state government has embarked to complete 270-km-long Metro network in the next three-four years and Metro-3 is an important part of the same. It’s a step towards safer, more comfortable and faster mode of transport to be made available for citizens of the city.”
Ashwini Bhide, Managing Director, MMRC, said, “Of course MMRC has not achieved the feat without its share of challenges at various levels, hard work and colourful rancour. MMRC could overcome the challenges only with the strong support provided by the state government.”
The construction of Metro-3 is divided into seven civil construction packages. The tunnel breakthrough witnessed on Monday is part of package 7 that is spread between T-2 till Aarey Colony and will provide access to Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar Metro-1 at Marol Naka and several other business hubs in Andheri and Seepz.
Meanwhile, the MMRC has successfully completed a 9-kilometre-long tunnel and has generated and disposed of 19,40,254 cubic metre of muck. For the purpose, 17 TBMs have been lowered in ten shafts and 14 of them have been commissioned. Another three will join drill in the next month.
