PUNE: Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation (Maha Metro) has completed the construction of first underwater metro tunnel below the Mutha river bed for the Pune Metro Rail Project.
Under Phase-1, Line-1(Purple Line) has an underground stretch of length 5.019 km from Agriculture College to Swargate with 5 underground stations. The work is divided in two packages – Package 1 from Agriculture college to Budhwar Peth and Package 2 from Budhwar Peth to Swargate. Both packages have been awarded to the JV of Tata-Projects-Gulermek.
Two TBM (Tunnel Boring Machines) i.e. S78 (Mutha) and S79 (Mula) were commissioned last month to build twin tunnels. Work on 1.6 km underground tunnel from between Agriculture College and Shivajinagar has been already completed. Tunnel work for the stretch between Civil court to Budhwar Peth started in March. After few days, Maha-Metro entered the riverbed of the Mutha river and now the tunneling work beneath Mutha river bed is completed.
According to the official Twitter handle of MahaMetro’s Pune Metro Rail Project,” Another 1st for Pune! 10s of bridges over Mutha river, some of them centuries old. Pune Metro has constructed 1st underwater metro tunnel below the Mutha river bed. Tunnels of ~240 mtrs. by Mutha & 223 mtrs. by Mula TBM completed between Civil Court & Budhwar Peth.”
With this development, Pune has become the 4th city in India after Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai to have an underground metro rail crosses the river.
This work is a part of 16.59 km long Purple Line of Pune Metro that will run from PCMC Bhavan to Swargate with 14 stations.
