Underground Metro work kick starts

The construction work on the city’s first underground Metro—Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ—commenced on Friday at multiple locations between Cuffe Parade and MIDC in Andheri. The 33.5 km Metro corridor will connect Cuffe Parade to SEEPZ via Bandra.

The work of piling and excavation on the corridor began in all seven packages with a workforce of more than 500 of which more than 70 are expats contributing with their skillsets to the project along with local engineers and co-workers. Meanwhile, Ashwini Bhide, Managing Director, MMRC, said, “We are committed to deliver quality and safety to Mumbaikars. Our effort will be to change the way Mumbaikars travel today.”

“Construction work began today at multiple places in the city such as Cuffe Parade, Azad Maidan, Science Museum Station, Vidya Nagari, Sahar Road and MIDC Station. After completing the Topography survey and barricading – with on-ground Geo-Technical work in progress – this is considered a major step as far as Mumbai’s first fully underground corridor is concerned. The construction activity includes piling for metro stations as well as ground preparation for Tunnel Boring Machine launching shaft,” a statement from Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), the implementing agency of the project said.

The Metro 3-corridor, which has 27 stations, is estimated to cost Rs 23,136 crore. Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will be funding 57 per cent of the total project, which is likely to shoot up with additional delays in the project.

The corridor would be a crucial link to create a parallel north-south rail connectivity to release the pressure of the overburdened suburban rail network.