74% tunnelling for Metro-3 completed

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is executing the fully-underground Metro-3 line (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz), has completed 74% of the tunnelling work for

The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC), which is executing the fully-underground Metro-3 line (Colaba-Bandra-Seepz), has completed 74% of the tunnelling work for the corridor.

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As of December 26, MMRC has completed 40-km tunnelling of the total 54.5-km twin-tunnel line. SK Gupta, director (projects), MMRC tweeted: “a very important milestone indeed achieved by consistent efforts in difficult conditions.”

MMRC has also completed 24 of the 32 tunnel breakthroughs. In a newly-released timeline for next year, the corporation is looking at completing all the tunnelling in the city by September 2020.

A spokesperson from MMRC said, “In 2020, we are looking forward to major landmarks. We are expecting to complete 70% of the civil works in 2020. The first rolling stock is expected by December 2020 and the track-laying work for the main line will also start next year.”

Each of the Metro trains will be 177.2 metre long, with a capacity of carrying 3,000 passengers.

While the first phase was initially set to be operational from December 2020, MMRC is looking at making the line partly operational (Aarey-Bandra-Kurla Complex) by June 2021.

The ₹23,136-crore project is partially being funded by Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) through a loan of ₹13,235 crore.

The third tranche of the loan is expected by March 2020.