Work on Mumbai’s ambitious Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project reached a key milestone on Tuesday, with the final shipment of the second tunnel boring machine (TBM) scheduled to arrive at the Goregaon work site on Thursday evening. Civic officials said preparations are underway to start lowering and assembling the first TBM in March, and the actual boring of the tunnel will begin in June 2026.
The Rs 6,500-crore GMLR project, spanning 6.62 km, aims to significantly reduce travel time between Goregaon in the western suburbs and Mulund in the east. A major component of the project is the 5.3-kilometre-long twin tunnels to be built beneath the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). Each tunnel, with an outer diameter of 14.42 metres, will be excavated using a tunnel boring machine and excavation will begin from the Goregaon end.
To facilitate this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been digging a huge ‘launch pit’ in the Film City area of Goregaon since last year. Starting in March 2025, the civic organization began receiving shipments of Japan’s first TBM. On Tuesday, officials confirmed that the final shipment of the second TBM is also expected to arrive at the site this week.
“From March 10, we plan to start lowering parts of the first TBM into the launch shaft. This will include four gantries, after which assembly will be carried out inside the shaft,” a senior BMC official told The indian express. “The assembly process will take at least three months, after which we aim to begin construction work on the tunnel from June 2026.”
The officials clarified that the lowering and assembly of the second TBM will be undertaken at a later stage.
Meanwhile, excavation of the launch pit is progressing at a good pace. Municipal authorities said that between 1,400 and 1,550 cubic meters of earth and rock are excavated daily with about 120 vehicles. The shaft, designed to be 200 meters long, 50 meters wide and 30 meters deep, has currently been excavated to a depth of 23 meters over its entire length and width.
The twin tunnels are part of the third phase of the GMLR, conceived as BombayThe fourth east-west corridor. The first phase of the project involves road widening, followed by a second phase comprising the construction of flyovers in the western suburbs along with tunnels driven by tunnel boring machines. The next phase includes a road over a bridge in Nahur, which connects to the final phase: a flyover to Airoli.
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In December 2025, BMC floated tenders for this final phase, which includes a 1.33 km flyover from Nahur to Airoli and cloverleaf interchanges to improve connectivity between Mumbai and Thane, at an estimated cost of Rs 1,293 crore.
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