Mumbai: Tunnelling below the Metro-III (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) Marol Naka, MIDC and SEEPZ stretch has been completed on Wednesday, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) has said. The total tunnelling length is of 7.07 km. The Metro-III authority informed that with three tunnel boring Machines (TBMs), 2,600-strong manpower and 175-member dedicated team for TBM, the tunnelling milestone has been achieved. And with this, Metro-III has completed 72 per cent of the total tunnelling works.
The total length of 55-km tunnelling has been calculated based on an upline and downline tunnels across the 33.5-km-long underground corridor, excluding the station box length.
Interestingly, the 24th breakthrough also achieved at MIDC metro station on Thursday. TBM Wainganga-2 completed the final drive of 1.67 kms using 1,196 rings at MIDC metro station and achieved this breakthrough. The MMRCL tweeted about this latest developments.
According to the MMRCL, despite facing innumerable challenges during construction of this metro line, it has achieved significant milestone in the project work so far. The Metro line-III will become an integral part of the Mumbai Metro network. Once ready, it will provide unprecedented connectivity to the city business districts as well as major transport hubs. This metro line would provide connectivity to 30 employment clusters, government and private offices, over 12 education institutions, 11 major hospitals, 10 major transportation hubs, and 25 religious and recreation areas.
Roadblock in the project:
The major roadblock in the project is the proposed depot in Aarey Colony. Currently, the depot work has been stopped on orders of CM Uddhav Thackeray. There was a lot of fireworks after 2,100 trees were felled in the cover of the dark in October. Citizens, activists and environmentalists lambasted the authority for constructing depot in Aarey Colony, which is also considered to be the only forest the city can boast of.
