The National Wildlife Board approves the construction of twin Thane-Borivali tunnels in Mumbai and the Maharashtra government is likely to hold the foundation stone laying ceremony of the project on February 19, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit the state. source.

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The tunnel will pass through the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which is home to 18 species of wildlife, and will reduce travel time between Thane and Borivali to 20 minutes from the current one hour.

The project’s foundation stone laying ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on January 12 when Prime Minister Modi inaugurated the ‘Atal Setu’, but had to be postponed pending the nod.

What’s next?

• Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde announced the project in 2015 when he was handling the public works department.
• The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has successfully constructed the country’s longest cross-sea bridge connecting Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and received green recognition from the National Wildlife Board.
• It also requires final approval from the central ministry of environment and forest, to which the state government has submitted a proposal.

Project details

MMRDA will invest around Rs 16,000 crore in the project. The work has been awarded to ‘Megha Engineering Infrastructure’, Hyderabad.

According to MMRDA, they will construct a 10.25-km long tunnel with an approach length of 1.1 km.

Sharing the news of the much-awaited twin tunnel project approval from the National Wildlife Board, MMRDA Commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said on An important milestone in launching the work.”