Coastal Road Project: Work on one tunnel to be done by October, reclamation by April, says BMC

Construction work of the Coastal Road project on at Napean Sea Road near Priyadarshini Park. File pic

It has been a week since Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray launched the Tunnel Boring Machine - Mavala - to be used for digging two tunnels for the Coastal Road project, but till now the 2,275-metric tonne machine has only managed to bore up to nine metres. However, BMC officials are of the opinion that the speed of the machine will gradually increase and that work on one tunnel will be completed by October this year.

Further, officials said that the tunnel boring work would generate four lakh cubic metres of muck, 70 per cent of which would be used for construction of the road.
Meanwhile, sources said that the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority (MCZMA) had asked the central government to approve 21 hectares of land for reclamation and if the NOC comes in time, then reclamation of a total of 111 hectares would be completed by April.

Vijay Nigot, chief engineer of the Coastal Road project, said, "We have completed about 75 hectares of reclamation so far, and if we receive the Centre's NOC in time, we may be able to finish the reclamation work by April." But in case the approval is delayed for some reason, then the BMC would complete 90 hectares of reclamation according to the approved plans and designs of the project.

Along with the reclamation work, the civic body is also carrying out work on the twin tunnels, piling and foundation of the bridge - all of which is part of the project. As part of the work on the 2.07-kilometre-long twin tunnels, the BMC is expected to extract about 4 lakh cubic metres of muck, 70 per cent of which would be used for construction of the project.

Requesting anonymity, a civic official said, "One tunnel is expected to be completed by this September or October. The machine is currently boring about 1 metre each day but the cutting speed will gradually increase. However, even the muck to be collected will be brought up once the machine completes boring about 300 to 400 metres."