Maharashtra’s Mahayuti government has accelerated its infrastructure push with the simultaneous launch of two flagship projects designed to reshape Mumbai’s mobility landscape: the 9.96-km Orange Gate–Marine Drive twin tunnel and the 13.9-km elevated Eastern Freeway Extension to Thane. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde personally inaugurated the Tunnel Boring Machine on Wednesday, marking the formal start of underground excavation beneath one of the world’s most densely built coastal cities.

The Orange Gate–Marine Drive tunnel, an engineering feat costing over ₹13,000 crore, will create the missing link between the Eastern Freeway and the Mumbai Coastal Road, allowing seamless north-south movement along the western seaboard. Running up to 40 metres below ground, it passes beneath 700 properties, including century-old heritage structures, Western Railway and Central Railway tracks, and multiple metro lines without disturbing surface operations. Equipped with state-of-the-art ventilation, AI-driven traffic management, and emergency evacuation systems, the project is slated for completion by December 2028, with officials aiming to advance it by six months.

In parallel, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority has begun construction of a fully elevated six-lane high-speed corridor stretching 13.9 km from Chheda Nagar in Ghatkopar to Anand Nagar in Thane. Once operational, commuters will be able to travel from South Mumbai to Thane in just 25-30 minutes, bypassing the perpetually gridlocked Eastern Express Highway that currently takes over an hour during peak periods. The corridor will integrate with existing elevated roads at Mulund and Saket, and provide direct ramps to Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road, Airoli, and the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Expressway.

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These projects are expected to reduce daily travel time for lakhs of commuters, lower vehicular emissions significantly, and unlock economic potential across the extended metropolitan region. In a notable environmental gesture, MMRDA realigned the Vikhroli-Ghatkopar section to preserve 127 mature Pink Trumpet trees, with a commitment to plant over 4,175 new trees as compensatory afforestation.

With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections approaching, the twin launches serve as high-visibility deliverables for the ruling alliance, reinforcing its narrative of transforming Mumbai into a faster, greener, and more connected global metropolis by the end of the decade.

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