Surat metro’s biggest challenge — tunnelling work — has been put on fast track and 1.5km tunnel work has already been completed. Of six underground stations, work on four stations are in advanced stages, while work on Labheshwar Chowk and Maskati Hospital have been delayed due to utilities and other issues.
Over all, metro officials believe that the tunnel work on Kapodra-Dream city stretch will be completed by December this year. While the total stretch will ready with civil, mechanical and electrical work by December 2024, officials said.
Talking to Yogendrasingh Chauhan, general manager said, “At present, we are in the most challenging phase of the Metro rail project as we are working on the tunnels. We have completed 1.5km stretch on the Kapodra-Warehouse route. We complete 8 to 10 metres every day. As the underground stations are in the old city, we have to take care of utilities. This has delayed work, but we have recovered time with additional workforce in place.
We will finish the tunnel work by December end, while the entire Kapodra-Dreamcity stretch will be ready in December-2024. We hope to meet the deadline for the whole project in March-2025.”
Surat Metro has 6.47km underground route which will be on Sarthana-Dreamcity stretch and start from Kapodra.
Surat Metro rail will run on two corridors on 40.35km. The first corridor will be known as Diamond corridor which will run from Sarthana to Dreamcity. The corridor, known as the textile corridor will run between Bhesan and Saroli. There will be two depots at Dreamcity and Bhesan.