Work on assembling the tunnel boring machine (TBM) components for the twin tunnels of the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project is progressing at the Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari area, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said on Wednesday, 3 June.
The work is being carried out under Phase 3-B of the GMLR project, which involves the construction of twin underground tunnels between Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari in Goregaon and Khindipada in Mulund.
Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) Abhijit Bangar conducted a surprise inspection of the ongoing work at the project site.
According to the BMC, the assembly of the first tunnel boring machine is expected to be completed by the second week of June.
The assembly of the second TBM is also progressing simultaneously.
After the first TBM is fully installed at the project site, a Site Acceptance Test will be conducted to check whether the machine’s performance, safety systems and integrated operations are functioning properly.
The test will mainly cover mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, control and safety systems.
Actual tunnel excavation will begin only after all tests are found satisfactory as per the prescribed standards.
The GMLR twin tunnels will run parallel to each other, with each tunnel measuring 4.70 Km in length.
The diameter of the parallel tunnels will be 14.20 metres, while it will be 13 metres in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park area.
The BMC said the target is to begin excavation of both tunnels as per the planned schedule and complete tunnelling work before October 2028.
Bangar said the civic body is working to complete the overall project by December 2028.
The Goregaon-Mulund Link Road is one of Mumbai’s key east-west connectivity projects and is expected to improve road movement between the western and eastern suburbs of the city once completed.
