MahaMetro starts tunnelling on Shivajinagar-Swargate stretch

The Maharashtra Metro Railway Corporation (MahaMetro) has begun excavation work on the passage that will link a short underground passage, connecting the parallel tunnels to be used in case of an emergency. Atul Gadgil, Director of Maha-Metro, informed that they have planned seven such passages on the underground stretch between Shivajinagar and Swargate. Generally, there is one passage for each 500-metre underground stretch to be used in case a train derailment takes place, there will be an escape route for passengers and they have started work on the first passage. On the overall completion of the underground route, he said that they have crossed the river and reached the Budhwar Peth area. From the Swargate side and will reach Mandai in a fortnight. The underground stretch between Agriculture College and Swargate is part of the 16-km Pimpri-Chinchwad to Swargate corridor. Meanwhile, a ramp to link the elevated track with the underground route at the Agriculture college depot will be completed by August this year. At Swargate they are using cut and cover sections for the station work and behind the station, two tunnel works are going on under the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM). It is a conventional method as there are no tunnel boring machines as such it takes at least three months to complete this tunnel work with five underground stations. Of these five metro stations, Maha-Metro is erecting multi-modal hubs at three stations. The cross passages are generally constructed using traditional techniques. These typically include the use of ground treatment, excavators, rock breakers, rock bolting and concrete lining from within the tunnels.