Mumbai: 40 per cent of work complete in coastal road project, says BMC

The project, consisting of a tunnel, a road, and an interchange, aims to connect south Mumbai to the Worli end of the Worli-Bandra Sea Link through a high-speed corridor.

The coastal road project between Princess Street flyover and Worli-end of Bandra-Worli sea link was expected to be ready by July 2023.

The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), with its diameter of 12.19-meters, is said to be the country’s biggest road tunnel boring machine. It weighs 2,300 tonnes and is 80-meters long.

The machine is digging on an average of 8-10 meters per day and around 20 meters below the ground at the Priyadarshini park site.

The country’s first undersea tunnel is a set of twin tunnels one for each carriageway. The length of each is 2.07 km from Priyadarshini park to Chotti Chowpatty at Marine drive, close to the landmark Chowpatty beach at Girgaum.

The Covid-19 pandemic had delayed the delivery of the TBM from China. Also, the BMC had to tweak its plan to not use Chinese experts for assembling the TBM in the backdrop of border tensions with the country.

Chahal added, “Work on the 1-km tunnel is complete with a 40-feet diameter under Malabar Hill. Only 900 meters of the tunnel remains now.”