Mumbai Metro’s TBM Surya-2 Records Breakthrough at CSMT

Moments ago, Tunnel Boring Machine Surya-2 operated by Larsen & Toubro – Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company JV arrived at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus on Mumbai Metro’s 33.5 km Line-3 (Aqua Line).

This was Surya-2’s 4th (and final) breakthrough, and L&T-STEC JV’s 7th (and penultimate) breakthough for the 4.25 km Package UGC-01’s tunnels between Cuffe Parade and CSMT. Overall, this was Line-3’s 37th of 42 planned TBM breakthroughs.

This Robbins Crossover XRE TBM had recorded a breakthrough in October 2020 at the southern-end of Hutatma Chowk Station’s 233 meter NATM-mined tunnel and then tunneled right through it to get towards its northern-end. It was then re-commissioned for its 4th assignment on January 2, 2021 to build the 556 meter long down-line tunnel towards CSMT.

With this development, here’s the status of package UGC-01 between Cuffe Parade and CST / CSMT stations where 1 final breakthrough is pending, also at CST. The team is aiming to wrap that up in May-end.

This table is best viewed on a desktop device –

TBM	Line	From	To	Distance	Status
1	Up	Cuffe Parade	Vidhan Bhavan	1128m	Completed
1	Up	Vidhan Bhavan	Churchgate	498m	Completed
1	Up	Churchgate	Hutatma Chowk	649m	Completed
1	Up	Hutatma Chowk	CST	551m	In Progress
2	Down	Cuffe Parade	Vidhan Bhavan	1254m	Completed
2	Down	Vidhan Bhavan	Churchgate	481m	Completed
2	Down	Churchgate	Hutatma Chowk	653m	Completed
2	Down	Hutatma Chowk	CST	556m	Completed (this post!)

Line-3’s depot issues have still not been resolved with the Bombay High Court yet to decide whether the saltpan land identified in Kanjurmarg – for housing a mega depot catering to different lines – belongs to the state or Centre.

That said, Line-3 now has just 3 TBMs actively tunneling from an all time high of 17. A total of 37 breakthroughs have been recorded so far with the following 5 pending:

Package	Section	Status & Distance
UGC-01	Hutatma Chowk – CST (up-line)	248/408 rings completed (551m, In Progress)
UGC-03	Science Museum – Mahalaxmi (up-line)	419/752 rings completed (1118m, In Progress)
UGC-03	Mahalaxmi – Mumbai Central (up-line)	837m, Not Started
UGC-03	Science Museum – Mahalaxmi (down-line)	505/752 rings completed (1136m, In Progress)
UGC-03	Mahalaxmi – Mumbai Central (down-line)	830m, Not Started

For more updates, check out my Home Page!

– TMRG