Undeterred by the torrential rains and pandemic fear, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) completed the 1.5-km long tunnelling work beneath the Mithi River on Wednesday. The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Godavari-4 completed the upline stretch of 1.5-km from Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) to Dharavi. Godavari-4, was commissioned on August 21, 2019 from BKC launching shaft and shaped the tunnel with 1,043 RCC rings up to Dharavi. With this it attained the 29th breakthrough on the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro-3 underground corridor.
Ranjit Singh Deol, managing director of MMRC said that the project is challenging with high water tables and complex geology. “But I am happy that our team has accomplished the assigned task despite the Covid-19 related restrictions."
According to the MMRC, earlier in March 2020, Godavari-3 had completed the downline tunnel of 1.5-km from BKC to Dharavi. Out of the total 3-km (Up and Downline) stretch from BKC to Dharavi, the 484-meter tunnel lies below the active Mithi river channel. The Package-5 which consists of Dharavi, BKC, Vidyanagari and Santacruz stations has completed the entire tunnelling of 8-km, it further stated.
The MMRC has now completed 85 per cent of tunnelling with the help of 17 TBMs and about 59 per cent of the overall construction work.
