Mumbai: Amid the nationwide lockdown, Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) on Thursday said it has completed tunnelling on one of the stretches on the Colaba-SEEPZ corridor.
While construction activities in the megapolis have been stopped amid the COVID-19 crisis, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has allowed the continuation of "critical activities" on major infrastructure projects.
Tunnel boring machine (TBM) Vaitarna-2, which was commissioned on February 2, 2018, from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) launching shaft, has completed its longest run at Mumbai Central station with 2,730 RCC rings, MMRC said in a statement.
"This part of the tunnelling was very challenging particularly because the alignment runs very close to old and dilapidated buildings and also parallel to the seashore and very shallow groundwater table which is around 1-4 meters below only," MMRC Managing Director Ranjit Singh Deol said.
This was the 28th tunnel breakthrough in the metro-3 corridor, and Vaitarna-2 has become the first TBM in the corridor to complete the stretch of 4-km in a single drive, the authority said.