Work on metro tunnel under Mutha river to begin: Maha-Metro official

Once complete, Pune will be the fourth city after Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai where an underground Metro rail crosses the river

With the completion of the 1.6-kilometre underground tunnel between Agriculture College and Shivajinagar, the Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha-Metro) has now started work on digging beneath the Mutha river bed near Shivajinagar for the Pune metro project.

The tunneling work below the Mutha river section, according to officials, will begin very soon. (HT PHOTO)

Once complete, Pune will be the fourth city after Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai where an underground Metro rail crosses the river. The tunneling work below the Mutha river section, according to officials, will begin very soon. According to Maha-Metro director Atul Gadgil, the rail level below the surface at Mutha river is 28 metres which is the lowest point of the metro route. “The tunnel will be six metres below the lowest point of the river. After that there is a seven-metre ridge of the tunnel,” said Gadgil.

Pune metro has an underground stretch measuring 5.019 km in its PCMC to Swargate corridor. There are five underground stations. Among these five metro stations, there are three stations where Maha-Metro is erecting multi-modal hubs and other transport models would be connected to each other.

Besides Pune, the Kolkata metro crosses the Hooghly river where the tunnel has been dug 33 metres below the river bed. In Mumbai, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) completed one of the twin tunnels passing under the city’s Mithi river. The two tunnels, one of which is complete, are almost 12.5m below Mithi river. Chennai has an operational line under water with the proposed Metro line passing through 20 metres deep under the depths of the Adyar river and Chepet lake while travelling between Madhavaram and Sholinganallur.

In Pune, the Tunnel Boring Machine is 150-200 metres away from the river bed at Shivajinagar. The city, as per plan, has three metro corridors being developed by Maha-Metro, the state government company. It will cover total a distance of 31 kilometers (a 16-km stretch from Pimpri to Swargate and another from Vanaz to Ramwadi at an estimated cost of Rs 11,420 crore).

The Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA) is building another route between Hinjewadi to Shivajinagar, which will be of 23 kilometers at an estimated cost of Rs 7,947 crore. All the three lines are expected to be operational by 2022.

Maha-Metro public relations officer Hemant Sonawane, said, “There would be no difference between regular underground metro tunnel and tunnel below the riverbed. Commuters would not realise that they are crossing the river when they travel from this section. The tunnel boring machine has already reached the Civil Court station and completed the 1.6 Km tunnel work for underground metro. There would be no special technique to cross the river. The same machine would do the tunneling work below the river.”

Underground metro stations/ Rail level below the surface

Shivajinagar/16 metre

Civil Court/28 metre

Budhwar peth-25 metre

Mandai- 20 metre

Swaragate- 22 metre