MUMBAI: Late Friday evening, a cavity appeared in the P&T Colony Sahar Road in Andheri (East), where Tunnel construction Work is underway for the construction from Subway line 7AA total of nine families living near the collapse The construction site was relocated by the contractor to a nearby hotel.
Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is implementing the project, confirmed that there were no injuries or damage to property as a result of the incident.
“Construction work on subway line 7A has created a huge hole that poses a danger to surrounding buildings. Residents first reported the incident on August 23 at around 10:10 p.m.,” said Godfrey Pimenta of the NGO Watchdog Foundation.
“As per our information, there was a 24-foot deep and 10-foot wide collapse, which J Kumar Contractor for Metro Line 7A has repaired by filling the gaping hole with around 20 truckloads of reinforced concrete,” he said.
An MMRDA spokesperson said, “During tunnel construction, we unexpectedly encountered an underground cavity and weak local soil layers. These conditions were neither identified nor analyzed before commencing tunnel work on the road surface at P&T Colony.”
After the problem was discovered, tunnel work using tunnel boring machines (TBMs) was immediately stopped and the subsided soil section was stabilized by grouting and concreting.
The spokesman continued: “For safety reasons, residents of the surrounding buildings were immediately accommodated in hotel rooms in the area.”
Tunnel construction will not resume until the stability of the soil and the effectiveness of cement injection in the area have been ensured.
“No one or property was harmed in this incident and all necessary precautions are being taken to prevent further collapses,” the spokesman assured.
The subway line 7A connects Andheri East with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), thereby extending the operating route 7 (Andheri East-Dahisar East).
The entire tunnel project will be carried out at depths between 12 and 28 meters.
The 3.4 km long corridor of line 7A runs partly elevated and parallel to the Western Express Highway and the Sahar Elevated road, with 2.5 km of the corridor running underground.
