The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sent a second request to the Embassy of India in Beijing, China along with the Central Government to permit six Chinese engineers to visit Mumbai in order to supervise the tunnelling works being carried out for the Coastal Road Project.
The originally scheduled visit by the Chinese engineers was halted due to the diplomatic tensions between India and China in June last year. However, when the BMC placed a request last month to permit the six engineers to travel, the Embassy of India in Beijing rejected the visa applications.
Read - Coastal Road Project: BMC Receives Approval For Additional Land Reclamation
The BMC sent another request earlier this month, attaching an invitation letter to support their visa applications. The requirement of Chinese engineers comes as the tunnel boring machine (TBM) was borrowed from China Railway Construction Heavy Industry by Larsen & Toubro which happens to be the contractor appointed by the BMC.
The aforementioned TBM at Priyadarshini Park was inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and work on one of the twin tunnels began recently. Though the pace of construction is said to be relatively slow right now, officials expressed hope that the speed will improve as the project goes on. It’s worth noting that the TBM at Priyadarshini Park is also the biggest in India.
Also read - CM Thackeray Launches Coastal Road Tunnel Boring Machine
As per officials familiar with the matter, assistance from the engineers at the Chinese company will be required to tunnel the first 500 metres. These engineers were expected to help BMC officials assemble the TBM machine which reached Mumbai in April 2020.
“The TBM is very expensive, so the presence of engineers from the manufacturing company is needed for assistance and training in the initial stages,” a civic official said.
However, engineers from L&T and other experts could assemble the TBM leading to its official launch recently. With a diameter of 12.2 metres, this TBM is double the size of the machines used for tunnelling Metro lines.
Some engineers from China have been assisting their L&T counterparts via video conferencing, thus helping with the project. It is further said that a senior engineer with L&T has prior experience working on a project of this magnitude in China.
Read - Coastal Road Project: BMC Says One Of The Two Tunnels Will Be Completed By October
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