First underground Metro tunnel project complete

The first step in the construction of the underground metro project in the nation's financial capital, Mumbai, has been taken, with the end-to-end completion of a 1.26km tunnel from the Municipal Pali ground at Marol village in Andheri (E) to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport Terminal-2 station of the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ corridor of Metro-3 project. Wainganga-1, the tunnel-boring machine (TBM), which was commissioned on January 8, 2018, completed its tunnel drive of 1.26km in package 7, with the light at the end of the tunnel being the Airport station.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, along with the Consul General of The People's Republic of China in Mumbai, Tang Guocai, witnessed the breakthrough of the first tunnel boring machine on the Colaba–BandraSEEPZ line of the metro on Monday. Electrification, strengthening and planting of railway tracks will be undertaken later.

Praising the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) for its efforts, Fadnavis said, "Now, we have to change our motto -- From transforming Mumbai into Shanghai, we will transform Mumbai into Mumbai -- the city of the 21st century."

He added, "Earlier, rulers of the state who came from rural Maharashtra used to say they want to turn Mumbai into Shanghai. But I would like to say people from Shanghai will come to Mumbai, to witness the transformation of our city."

He further said, given the speed at which the breakthrough of the first tunnel was completed, the entire project would be completed within next two to three years.

Fadnavis appealed to the consul general of China and the contractor partner Shanghai Tec (STEC) to bring the remaining TBMs to Mumbai to speed up the work. At present, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co Ltd (STEC) are working on tunnel boring using three machines belonging to the STEC.

The CM believed that the metro network within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) will help bring down the congestion of traffic. He said, "The state government is planning to create a platform where all kinds of transport facilities, including metro rail, mono rail, BEST and suburban local trains will use a single ticket. The National Institute for Transformation of India (NITI) Aayog members will visit to study the state's integrated transport ticketing system. I hope, NITI Aayog will recommend all states to replicate our system."

The 92-metre long Wainganga bored an average 4.6 metres daily, shaping the tunnel with 901 RCC cement rings. The MMRC as of today, has completed about nine kilometres of tunnelling and has generated and disposed of 19,40,254 cubic metres of muck. The total length of the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ metro is 33.5 km.