Mumbai: The BMC completed the first tunnel of its ambitious coastal road project in just one year. However, the boring work on the second south-bound tunnel from Marine Drive to Priyadarshini Park has been delayed owing to technical issues with the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), pushing the breakthrough by a month.
The project’s first phase (a stretch of 10.58km) is being constructed from the Princess Street flyover at Marine Drive to the Worli end of Bandra-Worli Sea Link. The road will have two underground tunnels of 2.07km, connecting Priyadarshini Park to Girgaum Chowpatty. The tunnels will run 75 metres below the surface at Malabar Hill and 25 metres below the surface at Girgaon.
Boring work was expected to finish in Jan
The BMC has procured the country’s largest TBM (Mavala) with a diameter of 12.2 metres. The boring work for the second tunnel started on April 1, 2022, and was expected to be completed by January 2023. However, it was halted for three months after a TBM part got damaged. The work was resumed after the civic officials arranged for the spare part from Italy. However, technical issues have persisted and it is being used cautiously. Currently, 125 m of tunnel boring work is left and every day just three to four metres of tunnel is dug.
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