Mumbai: National Board of Wildlife grants approval to Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel

Pic/X@DrSanMukherjee

The National Board of Wildlife on Saturday granted approval to the Thane-Borivali Twin Tunnel in Mumbai.

This approval marks a milestone in the commencement of this watershed project, said MMRDA.

"Happy to inform you that the National Board of Wildlife has granted approval to the Thane Borivali Twin Tunnel. This marks an important milestone in starting work of this watershed project," MMRDA Commissioner Dr. Sanjay Mukherjee said in a post on X.

The proposal for the construction of the Thane-Borivalli Twin Tunnel by the MSRDC was approved in the 150th meeting of the Board of Directors held on September 23, 2015.

In the MMRDA Authority meeting held on July 7, 2020, it was approved to transfer the project from MSRDC to Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). As per the approval given by the Board of Directors, the project has been handed over to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) project, which will comprise a 10.25 km double tunnel and 1.55 km junction, is slated to cost around Rs 11,235 crore.

The project requires the construction of two road tunnels of 10.8 km each under the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) and the approach roads on both ends. This will provide a shorter route to commuters and help them bypass the congested route they currently use.

The tunnel project aims to reduce the travel time from Thane to Mumbai's western suburbs from 60 minutes to 15-20 minutes.

The twin tunnel will run underneath the lush green SGNP for which the MSRDC is taking special precautions to avoid causing harm to its biodiversity or its flora and fauna, which includes leopards, spotted deer, Sambar, civets, different types of monkeys, Indian flying fox, pythons and other snakes, big and small reptiles including crocodiles, birds, insects, thousands of plant species, etc.

For this, the MSRDC will deploy Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) - similar to the ones deployed for digging the underground sections of Mumbai Metro projects - to cause minimum disturbances to wildlife in the 87-square km SGNP.

The first inter-district road tunnel project in the state, it will entail acquiring 16.54 hectares private and 40.46 hectare of SGNP lands and will connect Borivali WEH in Mumbai with the Tikuji-ni-Wadi on the Thane side.

(With inputs from Agencies)