Civil work on Maharashtra’s longest tunnel is now complete! The work on one of the six tunnels to come up on the 701 kilometres long eight-laned Mumbai-Nagpur Samurddhi Mahamarg also known as Super Communication Expressway Corridor is now over with 100% road concretization done, according to officials. The tunnel is situated between Igatpuri and Kasara Ghat. An official from the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) was quoted in an IE report saying the concrete road’s construction under the twin tunnel has been completed, which is the most important task after the tunnelling work. Now, the pending works include electric work such as installation of lights, fans and other work. These works will be completed soon as well, the MSRDC official said.
According to officials, out of the six tunnels to be developed en route the Greenfield Expressway, the 7.7 kilometre long twin tunnels between Kasara Ghat-Igatpuri will be the longest as well as widest highway tunnel in the state of Maharashtra. The 7.7 kilometre twin tunnels with 17.5 meters width have three lanes on each side of the road. It will allow the motorists to cross the Kasara ghat in just six to seven minutes as against the present 15 minutes.
The tunnels have been designed to last for a span of 100 years as well as for a vehicular speed limit of over 120 km per hour, according to the officials. An official mentioned the tunnel has been constructed using a modern technology called ‘New Australian Tunnelling Method’, also known as ‘design as you go’ method. The Samruddhi Mahamarg in Maharashtra is being built in 16 packages covering as many as 10 districts between Mumbai and Nagpur and also, it is going to be the fastest expressway in the country, officials stated.
The tunnel, which falls under the project’s package 14 will mitigate the 160-metre elevation difference of Kasara hills, the officials further said. The Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway, known as ‘Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg’, will be the country’s fastest expressway with a permitted top speed of 150 km per hour, officials said. This will cut down the travel time between the two cities from the current 16 hours to eight hours, they further added. Earlier, the cost of the entire project cost was finalized at Rs 46,000 crore. However, with further developments in planning, construction and land pooling, the total cost of the project increased to Rs 55,335 crore.
