Mumbai: Two infrastructure companies have placed their quotations with the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to build the Thane-Borivali twin tunnel underneath the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
Larsen & Toubro and Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Ltd are in the fray to bag the project, which will drastically shorten the travel time between the two suburbs, confirmed a senior MMRDA official.
Process to scrutinise the technical submissions begins
The process to scrutinise the technical submissions has begun, which is expected to go on for the next few days. Once done, the financial bid will be opened to decide on the company that has submitted the lowest quotation to build 23.68km of roads inside the tunnels and another 2km of approach roads. Excluding the approach roads, each of the tunnels will be 11.84km in length.
The infrastructure work has been split into two packages – construction of twin tunnels from Borivali up to 5.75km, and 6.09km of each of the twin tubes from the Thane end. This means in the next four years, up to 2027, tunnelling work will happen simultaneously on four fronts.
What are the plans?
As per the plans, the East-West connectivity project’s alignment will be at Magathane’s Ekta Nagar in Borivali and emerging next to Tikuji-Ni-Wadi at Manpada in Thane. Currently, by road, it takes over an hour to cover 24km from Magathane to Tikuji-Ni-Wadi. Once this project is built 23 metres beneath the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, the travel time will reduce to just around 15 minutes.
Each of the tunnels will have three lanes, totalling to six lanes, along with interconnecting tunnels for emergency purposes.
Meanwhile, the stalemate over the project’s implementation has meant cost escalating from ₹11,235 crore to over ₹13,200 crore and now sources shared it may well have shot up to ₹16,600 crore.
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