MMRC achieves final and 100% tunneling of Mumbai Metro Line 3

Mumbai, Indias (Metro Rail Today): Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), achieved its 42nd and final Breakthrough on the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro-3 corridor today at Mumbai Central Metro Station. Robbins made TBM Tansa-1 completed its most challenging drive of 837 meters from Mahalaxmi Metro Station to Mumbai Central Metro Station up line in 243 days using 558 concrete rings. Package-3 includes Mumbai Central, Mahalaxmi, Science Museum, Acharya Atre Chowk and Worli Metro Stations, is one of the longest stretches of the Mumbai Metro Line-3 corridor.

“It was with great pleasure that I witnessed the final breakthrough today. It marks 100% tunnelling of Metro-3 corridor. Tunnelling below Mumbai’s heritage precincts, in close proximity of old dilapidated buildings, existing Metro line, Railway lines, Water body with different and sometimes difficult geological conditions has been a daunting task”, expressed Ms. Ashwini Bhide, Managing Director, MMRC.

The average production rate of TBM is 5-6 meters/day/machine. Around 100 nos of manpower were engaged for each TBM machine for tunneling on the entire stretch of Metro-3 corridor. A total of 2,86,000 cubic meters of concrete & 29, 500MT of steel was used in Tunnel segment rings.

“We used advanced technology without compromising the safety of workers. This was a daunting task for the MMRC team along with General Consultants, Contractors, JVs. Once operational, Metro-line 3 aims to provide a speedy, comfortable, and safe commuting experience to the Mumbaikars”, said S.K. Gupta, Director (Projects), MMRC.

First time in India 17 highly mechanised Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) were working simultaneously & all these TBMs were named after various historic rivers in Maharashtra such as Surya, Vaitarna, Tansa, Krishna, Tapi, Godavari & Wainganga.

First TBM breakthrough was achieved by Wainganga-1 of package 7 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport Terminal 2 from Pali ground at Marol Naka in September 2018. First Twin tunnel breakthrough of line-3 and 3rd in country was achieved in January 2019.

Silver Jubilee Breakthrough of Mumbai Metro Line 3 was achieved at Worli Metro Station on 29th January 2020. The longest TBM Tunneling drive of Line 3 is from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus to Mumbai Central Metro Station of 3.80 km.

MMRC has received a total 10 metro train sets from Alstom so far. The entire 33.5-km long underground metro corridor is expected to open for public in December 2023.

The overall project progress stands at 76.6%.