[Pics] Progress of Navi Mumbai’s Metro over Sion-Panvel Highway

Here’s a post showing the progress made by NCC Ltd. on the Navi Mumbai’s 11.10 km metro line over the busy Sion-Panvel highway in Navi Mumbai! In order to build this section using girders, NCC patiently waited for a traffic diversion approval from the local Traffic Department to begin work for at least two whole years, which they received in November 2015 and promptly set into motion on December 21.

Satellite imagery of this section:

Purple star – location where girders will be launched over the Sion-Panvel highway

The two girders that will span over the highway will weigh 300 tonnes each and measure roughly 60 meters. For launching to commence, a steel support structure has come up and eaten into the right-most “fast” lane as seen below:

Steel support structure over Sion-Panvel Highway – Photo Copyright: TOI

View from the other side – Photo Copyright: Rajesh Panicker

As per a CIDCO official who interviewed with the Mid Day last year:

As the traffic flow is heavy on this stretch, we will first start installation of girders over the traffic going towards Pune. Some support system would be required to put the girders in place, as a result of which one lane of the highway will be occupied. However, we will ensure that vehicle movement is least affected at the construction site. The work is likely to commence after November 6, when repair work of the Belapur flyover is completed. Once the first girder is placed, work on the second, which passes over the highway on traffic going towards Mumbai will commence. Installing a single girder will take at least 70-80 days.

With work well underway here, only 2 more issues remain with the line’s construction:

• Railways crossing at Taloja: The Central Railway is yet to approve the design of a 100 meter long steel bridge. As per CIDCO, the approval is in its final stages.

• High-tension wire between Belpaur and Kharghar: CIDCO is yet to receive approval for extending the height of high-tension wires to allow the metro line pass below it.

For more updates on Navi Mumbai’s metro, check out the Navi Mumbai section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG