Mumbai: Work to carve out Mumbai’s longest twin tunnel will take off after monsoon, as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is in the final stages of appointing a private infrastructure company to implement the project.
Earlier this week, the development authority opened two bids it had received from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and J. Kumar Infraprojects. After the financial packages were opened, L&T emerged as the lowest bidder with its quotation of Rs 7,765 crore as against Rs 8,589 crore of J. Kumar Infraprojects. MMRDA’s estimated cost for the project was Rs 6,327 crore, that is, Rs 1,438 crore lesser than the lowest bid.
Twin tunnel to be signal free
Hereon, the MMRDA officials will put the proposal before its Executive Committee followed by the Authority chaired by Chief Minister and MMRDA Chairman Eknath Shinde. It is only after these two sanctions men and machinery will be mobilised at the construction locations.
As per the plans, the twin tunnel will be signal free to help reduce on road commute time. When ready, it will take 6-8 minutes to travel from the Coastal Road on Marine Drive to the start of the Eastern Freeway at Orange Gate and vice versa.
The plan is to ready the twin tunnel by mid-2027 to have better traffic dispersal plan for the vehicular traffic coming from South Mumbai as well as Coastal Road and headed to Navi Mumbai. The other traffic dispersal plan is Sewri - Worli Elevated Road, construction of which is underway.
When ready, this 3.1 km long tunnel will be the longest underground road in Mumbai. The other two twin tunnels are – on Eastern Freeway (1 km) and near ready Coastal Road (2.7 km).
2 lanes in each of the tunnels
The proposed twin tunnels will have two lanes in each of the tunnels. It will cross the Central as well as Western Railway lines and underground Mumbai Metro line 3 too. The Colaba - Bandra - SEEPZ metro route criss-crosses the metropolis at a depth of 25-27 metres. The tunnel will go below the metro line at a depth of 30 metres.
With widening of the existing roads not an option, the alternatives left were an elevated road or going below the surface. As there are heritage structures in South Mumbai, including the Marine Drive precinct which is a UNESCO world heritage spot, having a flyover had to be shelved for a tunnel. Secondly, the alignment of the elevated road or tunnel is roughly below the existing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road. The road width is narrow with about a century old buildings along the way. It involves acquisition of buildings and land that is part of prime real estate and also making it a time consuming task. Third reason for opting to go underground is that an elevated road would have obstructed the passage of taller Ganesh idols to Girgaum Chowpatty.
