Lonavala: The much-awaited Missing Link project on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was inaugurated by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on the occasion of Maharashtra Day Friday. Along with it, the CM also secured a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records for the ‘world’s widest underground tunnel’.
The 8.92 km long tunnel is part of the Missing Link project and offers an alternative to the winding roads of the ghat section. The tunnel has made a world record for its 23 metre width.
Speaking to the media, CM Fadnavis said, “This should not be called a Missing Link but a connecting link. Nothing is missing. Everything is in place.”
“It cost us Rs 7,000 crore to create this engineering marvel, but the project has generated such a strong economic multiplier that the Missing Link or connecting link is expected to create an economy worth Rs 70,000 crore,” the CM added.
The tunnel will cut travel time between Mumbai and Pune by half an hour and eliminate the ghat section that is a hilly terrain, which causes massive traffic jams during uphill driving.
“We did not plan to create a record. We just went ahead with our work,” said Chinta Sridhar, managing director, Navayuga engineering company, which constructed the bridge.
“But when we completed the tunnel, I realised it is quite wide. I travel to a lot of countries in Europe, America but never found a tunnel that is this wide. And so we applied for the Guinness World record,” he added.
Sridhar further informed that the Guinness people wrote back to him 3 months later and carried out their own survey. “The recognition from Guinness World Records is a proud moment for all of us, and a testament to the trust placed in us by the government,” Sridhar said.
The tunnel has been built under a large water body (Lonavala Lake) and the project involved extensive rock excavation, large-scale concrete works, and the successful integration of viaduct structures 180 metre high across a valley, utilising ultra high performance fiber reinforced concrete girders to enable efficient construction in challenging terrain.
It is a set of 5-lane twin tunnels, each 22.33 metre wide at different points in the project. The project involved the excavation of over 85 lakh tonnes of rock through the challenging terrain of the Sahyadri range. The construction used 7,600 tonnes of steel, reinforcing the structural strength of the tunnels, the company said.
The Missing Link project
The Missing Link project, apart from the twin tunnels, also has a bridge stayed by via duct cables in the Tiger Valley. The project forms part of a 19.16 km corridor that includes widening of a 5.86 km six-lane section between Khalapur and Khopoli interchange to eight lanes.
The project was earlier conceptualised in 2010 but work did not start until 2015, when the BJP-Shiv Sena government passed the orders for execution.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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