SUCG Subcontracted Mumbai Metro Line-3’s Partial Tunneling Works
Update: DOGUS-SOMA JV reached out with clarification. SUCG has been subcontracted tunneling works to expedite and match Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (MMRCL)’s schedule. There are various reasons for the delay, not at all pertaining to and beyond the control of Dogus-Soma JV. I offer my apologies for any confusion my original post may have caused.
Original Post (Now Modified):
SUCG Infrastructure India Pvt. Ltd. is confirmed to have officially been subcontracted tunneling works from Doğuş-Soma JV for the Mumbai Central – Mahalaxmi section of Mumbai Metro’s 33.5 km Line-3 (Aqua Line) which’ll connect Cuffe Parade – BKC – Aarey Colony through 27 stations.
This section is a part of the 5.06 km Mumbai Central – Worli package UGC-03 which is running terribly behind schedule with only 2 out of 6 breakthroughs accomplished by Doğuş-Soma JV’s Robbins slurry tunnel boring machines so far – both at Worli in 2020 (TBM 1238 / Tansa-1 in January & TBM 1239 / Tansa-2 in March).
SUCG’s scope of work includes building 837m up-line and 830m down-line tunnels between Mumbai Central and Mahalaxmi stations.
I heard rumblings of this subcontract as far back as January 2020 from industry insiders and it’s now been confirmed through a newly installed rolling gantry crane at the northern-end of Mumbai Central Station’s site which lists out SUCG’s name and logo.
This subcontracting of tunneling works is reminiscent of Bangalore Metro’s Phase 1 project where CEC-SOMA-CICI JV (contractor of Purple Line’s UG-1) was brought in to deploy a Hitachi Zosen slurry shield TBM for building a single 970 meter tunnel from Majestic Station to the North Ramp of the Green Line’s UG-2 in 2014-15.
Coming back to Mumbai, here’s a table displaying UGC-03’s tunneling plan (best viewed on a desktop device) and the status of each tunnel.
| TBM | Line | From | To | Distance | Status |
| 1 | Up | Science Museum | Worli | 2072m | Completed Jan 2020 |
| 1 | Up | Science Museum | Mahalaxmi | 1118m | Pending |
| 2 | Down | Science Museum | Worli | 2057m | Completed March 2020 |
| 2 | Down | Science Museum | Mahalaxmi | 1136m | Pending |
| 3 | Up | Mumbai Central | Mahalaxmi | 837m | Pending |
| 3 | Down | Mumbai Central | Mahalaxmi | 830m | Pending |
TBM 1238 (Tansa – 1) was transported as one unit from Worli back to Science Museum in March, and is currently waiting to be lowered into the station’s southern shaft. TBM 1239 (Tansa-2) is still sitting inside Worli Station and is waiting to be lifted out after its breakthrough in March.
We’ll have to wait and see when and which TBM SUCG will deploy to complete this assignment. Stay tuned to find out!
For more updates, check out the Mumbai section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
When will the Cuffe Parade – Aarey Colony be realistically started? I am desperate to know, as I intend to travel from Kandivli to BKC by Metro,and I want it to come up at the earliest.
Depends on when the Aarey Depot issue is solved. Whenever it is, add a minimum of 1.5 years. Tunneling works are behind schedule, but the depot (and the dependence of testing) is what will ultimately delay the line’s opening.