The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will commence tunnel boring works for the upcoming Coastal Road Project on January 7. The information was provided by Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Monday.
Authorities will use a slurry-based Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) which is reportedly the largest of its kind in India. It will be used to create a 3.45 Km long twin undersea tunnel from Priyadarshini Park to Girgaum Chowpatty. With components of the TBM arriving a few months ago, BMC officials are reportedly assembling the machine at the Priyadarshini Park location.
The civic body has spent a total of Rs 1,281 crores on the first phase of the Coastal Road project of the overall estimated cost of Rs 12,721 crores. “Substantial work has happened in the last couple of months; 17 per cent of the physical work stands completed and the said coastal road will be functional in July 2023,” the municipal commissioner said.
Though the BMC was looking to begin the tunnelling work in October this year, those plans were held back due to a combination of COVID-19 related restrictions and the cross-border conflict between India and China. The diplomatic conflict proved to be a bigger hurdle as TBMs mostly arrive from China.
Also read - In Pics: CM Uddhav Thackeray Reviews The Progress Of Tunnel Work On Mumbai-Pune Expressway
Data provided by the BMC shows that it has reclaimed 175 acres of space (equivalent to 70 hectares of land) from under the Arabian Sea. Though the civic body sought to acquire nearly 90 hectares worth of space, its reclamation proposals were revised.
The revision also talked about reclaiming an additional 21 hectares of land which includes 6.5 hectares for the road and 14.5 hectares for a sea wall and a rubble mound structure to protect the coastline from storm surges and large sea waves.
Despite originally having a completion deadline of 2022, works on the Coastal Road only began in December 2019. This came as the Bombay High Court stalled work on the project by dismissing the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance in July 2019.
Read - Coastal Road Project: BMC Receives Approval For Additional Land Reclamation
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