Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) on Friday said that as part of the upcoming Mumbai Metro III project it had completed boring the first 3.82 km long tunnel passing underneath some of the most thickly populated areas of south Mumbai.
Terming it “a challenging task”, a company spokesperson said HCC has finished the south-bound tunnel between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Mumbai Central stations, becoming the first contractor among all others to complete the entire length of a tunnel for the Metro III project.
The HCC maintained an average drilling rate of around 8.20 metres per day for the 3.82 km long tunnel passing via the station boxes of Kalbadevi, Girgaon and Grant Road.
This section is part of the 33.50 km long Metro III line connecting Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ (Andheri East) and will be the first fully underground metro in the city. It is being built at a cost of around ₹23,136 crore, with a ₹13,325 crore loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The HCC teams encountered several geological and urban challenges, including proximity to the Arabian Sea, tunneling through heterogeneous reclaimed land, congested working areas and drilling below some of the oldest residential and other buildings, many over a century old, without disturbing their foundations.
Source: Livemint