Mumbai: After several tender deadline extensions, the BMC has finally found the contractor for the 4.7km twin tunnels of the ambitious Goregaon Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project. The lowest bidder, J Kumar-Nagarjuna Construction Company, has bagged the contract by quoting Rs6,301 crore for the work. Work will start after the monsoon in October and will take 60 months to complete. Other than J Kumar-NCC, Larsen and Toubro and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd had also submitted the bids.
A twin tunnel and a box tunnel will be built under Sanjay Gandhi National Park and Film City. Each tunnel will be 4.7km long, while the box tunnel will be 1.6km long. It will have a diameter of around 13mt and a depth between 20mt and 160mt.
Ensuring complete connectivity along GMLR
The estimated bid for the tunnel construction was Rs6,322 crore. Three companies submitted their bid to the BMC. The deadline for submitting the bids was postponed four times in the last eight months.
The BMC undertook a detailed study to add the missing stretch between Chitranagari (Film City) and Khindipada junction as it’s part of Sanjay Gandhi National Park. “It was necessary to explore the possibility of constructing this missing link to ensure complete connectivity along GMLR. As per the findings, it was decided to connect this phase through twin parallel and completely underground tunnels with three lanes each: It is a challenging project,” said P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (projects).
The 12.2km road connecting Western Express Highway at Goregaon with Eastern Express Highway at Mulund will be crucial in decongesting other prominent routes like Santacruz-Chembur Link Road, Andheri-Ghatkopar Link Road and Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road. Theproject is divided into four phases and the estimated cost is around Rs8,550 crore. The entire project is expected to be ready by 2028.
Pointers
-Twin tunnel 4.7km long and 13mt diameter
-Depth under hilly area between 25mt and 160mt
-Distance between tunnels 15mt
-Cross-passage every 300mt
-Mechanical ventilation inside tunnels
-Advanced fire-fighting and fire resistance systems, and CCTV surveillance
