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Ashish Srivastava*, Dr. Ateeq Khateeb, Navneet Gupta, Rakesh Ramalingam, Suyash Trivedi
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Innovations and Challenges in Design and Comments

Construction of Underground Mumbai Metro
Line-3 – Lot UG-04 & UG-06

Summary: India is well on its way to create a world-class MRT system environment as an integral part of

community infrastructure development. Mumbai Metro Line 3 (MML3) is one such project being construc-

ted in Mumbai City. It comprises of 33.5km long underground metro corridor running along Colaba to

Bandra to SEEPZ. It includes 27 stations (26 underground and one at grade), a Depot, and associated

twin tube TBM. Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), an affiliate organisation of MMRDA (Mum-

bai Metropolitan Region Development Authority), is responsible for the implementation of the Project.

Excavation as well as tunnelling works posed significant challenges as the alignment passed through the

densely inhabited zones of Mumbai. There were several buildings that were old and in delicate condition,

many of which are heritage structures. Mumbai being a coastal city, the water table is almost at ground

level which added to complications. There were several utilities, many of which were lifeline utilities,

which could not be diverted or even closed thus requiring supporting them while excavation below for

metro structures. Likewise, ensuring traffic movement with minimal disruptions with enormous excava-

tion works for the project required several innovative solutions. Other criticalities included deep excava-

tion very close to the existing flyovers, ATC tower, and saving 100-year-old Banyan tree.

Keywords Secant Pile, Tunnel, Underground Metro, Utility support, Decking, Cut & Cover Construction.

Introduction

The Mumbai Metro Project Line 3 (MML3) is being constructed in Mumbai City (in Maha -
rashtra State). It is 33.5 km long underground metro Corridor running along Colaba to Bandra
to Seepz. The corridor includes 27 stations (26 underground and one at grade), a Depot at
Aarey, and associated tunnels (Twin TBM drives with connecting cross passages and NATM
Tunnels). The entire MML3 alignment is divided into seven contract packages namely UGC01
to UGC07. Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL), an affiliate organisation of MM-
RDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) is responsible for the imple-
mentation of the Metro Corridor project and its operation after its completion.

MML3 line shall be the first underground Metro line in the city of Mumbai connecting points

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like Navy Nagar in the far south to the Aarey Depot in the north-centre. It will also connect to
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other Metro lines, monorail, suburban and intercity rail stations, and Mumbai Airport.

A typical Underground Metro consists of stations and tunnels. Two tunnels of 5.8m finished
dia. connect the stations for train movement. Precast segmental linings are the main structural
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form for the tunnel. Apart from this, cast-in-situ lining have been used at cross-passage and
siding line by NATM. The station typically has a platform level, concourse level, and connec -
tion to entry and exit structures at the street level.

Geoconsult along with TCPL as a joint venture Geoconsult-TCPL JV is the DDC (Detailed
Design Consultant) for the two packages of the MML3 corridor - UGC04 and UGC06.

CEC-ITD Cem-TPL JV are the contractors for UGC04 contract consisting of joint venture of 3
companies Continental Engineering Corporation, ITD Cementation India Limited, and Tata
Projects Limited. The contract involved Design and Construction of three stations Siddhi
Vinayak, Dadar, Shitladevi, and a Launch Shaft at Naya Nagar and associated tunnels. Shit-
ladevi station is by NATM method while other stations and launch shaft are by cut and cover
method. There are a total of five tunnel sections and twenty-two cross passages by NATM
method.

JKIL-CRTG JV are the contractors for the UGC06 contract consisting of joint venture of
J. Kumar Infra Projects Limited and CRTG. The contract involved design and construction of
three underground stations at CSIA Domestic, Sahar Road and CSIA International and associ -
ated tunnels. Two UG stations are planned to provide connectivity to the Mumbai Airports and
one to the cargo estate. The Stations are connected thru a twin bored tunnel along with a track
scissor crossover constructed using NATM. Airport stations are planned just in front of the
terminals with direct connections through skyway bridges. As these stations are located near
the second busiest airport in the country, the location becomes the center of commercial and
business hubs hence mixed used over site development (OSD) is planned above the station.
All three stations are by cut and cover method. There are a total of three tunnel sections and
fourteen cross passages by NATM method. Besides these, there is a Cross Over Tunnel with
variable cross-section done by NATM. A subway tunnel for entry passage to the domestic
airport station from another side of the western expressway has also been done by NATM.

1.0 Outline of a typical underground station

Station structure is generally planned as rectangular box with shallow soil cover. A typical
underground station has different levels based on utilization and operations; they can be sum -
marized as follows.
Roof slab allows the passenger to access the station from surface. It is generally 2 – 10 m
below the ground level forming the station box and is not visible. The Dadar station roof slab
is approximately 6m below the ground level to accommodate the existing water pipelines of
1.4m diameter. Roof slab for all the three stations of package UGC06 is at a depth of 10 m
from ground level as three level of basements and 10 storey Property Development is planned
over these stations.

Concourse Slab is the first level which is exposed to passengers when entering the station. It

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houses many access facilities and is used for ticketing, public interchange movement, equip-
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ment storage and other commercial activities.

Platform Level is used for boarding and un-boarding the trains by the commuters.
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Base slab has Track level on side of the platform for train movement and Undercroft Level
directly below the platform for drainage sumps, electrical cables, and other services for Metro
operations.

As an example of innovation to fit in a station in severely constrained area, Dadar station is

illustrated.

This station is placed in proximity of planned high-rise buildings, to make it narrower to fit in
the available space, the platforms have been partially staggered. This resulted into a longer
station of 324m length, while other typical stations on this line are about 250m long. The an -
cillary building of the station is fitted into a traffic island by reducing the above ground occu-
pation to the island size. Ventilation ducts have been planned open to sky with internal drain -
age arrangements to avoid visual obstruction to the nearby housing and commercial establish-
ments.

Figure 1: Architectural Cross Section of Dadar Station

At package UGC06, all the stations have a building with 10 storeys above ground level and 3
basements planned right above the station. As a result, the station depth is 30m from the
ground level which is 10 to 12m more than a typical UG station. The width of the stations is
30m which is also 10m more than the typical UG station to accommodate the columns of the
OSD building. The columns from the base raft of the UG station will be continuing above the
roof of the station upto the top of the building to support the OSD building floors and to form
structural framing for it. The biggest challenge was to plan space for metro passenger move-
ment along with integrated OSD user traffic within the common structural framework.

2.0 Construction Methodologies for Stations

As each station location had its own site-specific constraints and different construction meth -
odologies. Cut and cover methodology with top-down or bottom-up approach depending on
the rock level is the preferred option for station works. Due to the limited space available for
construction some of the underground stations of MML3 line like Hutatma Chowk, Kalbadevi,
Girgaon, Grant Road, Shitladevi, Santacruz, and Marol Naka have been constructed by NATM
method. Combinations of cut and cover with NATM too have been adopted at certain loca-
tions.

3.1 Cut and Cover (C&C) Method

In this method, first temporary earth retaining support structure is installed. Excavation in
stages is carried out with the installation of struts and/or rock anchors to reach the final excav-
ation level. The station structure is constructed post excavation and it is covered again after
casting the roof slab.

Top-down construction with a Diaphragm wall was not possible due to presence of rock much
above the final excavation level.

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Initially, secant pile wall had been constructed around the station’s entire periphery with em-
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bedment in competent rock. Secant piles are best suited retaining system as they can form a
watertight wall by interlocking soft and hard piles. To prevent water seepage the secant piles
were drilled up to a depth where Grade III rock with low permeability of order less than 10 -
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m/s was achieved. The level of Grade III rock was varying and unknown along the length of
the wall. To ascertain the depth of Grade III rock level and to fix the secant pile depth and
embedment, calibration of the piling equipment was done. Next to a known borehole, the pil-
ing equipment’s rate of penetration, pressure, torque, etc. were measured while drilling each
layer. The rate of penetration at Grade III was ascertained and used as the criteria for fixing
the termination level of secant pile during its installation.

Since the excavation width was 30 m to 40m, long span struts with intermediate supports to
break the span was not economical, hence inclined prestressed rock anchor and rock bolts
along with waler were used as props to support the secant pipe wall.

Figure 2: Cross section showing typical temporary works for Bottom-Up construction

After reaching Grade III rock by sequentially excavating soil and highly weathered rock in the
secant pile confined zone, excavation in hard rock was started. The hard rock was drilled using
mechanical means no blasting or chemical methods were used. Care was taken while excavat -
ing close to the secant pile embedment zone. The open excavation in rock was done in moder-
ately and slightly weathered rock by stabilizing it using rock bolts, shotcrete, and wire mesh

after sequentially excavating and mapping the rock surface. Drainage holes were installed on
the rock face to release the water pressure.

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Figure 3: Excavation at CSIA International Station employing Secant pile with Anchors

Cut and cover methodology in dense urban area pose significant challenges. There were sev-
eral buildings which were old and in delicate condition, many of which were heritage struc-
tures. Mumbai being coastal city, the water table is almost at ground level which added to
complications. There were several utilities, many of which were lifeline utility, which could
not be diverted or even closed thus requiring supporting them while excavation below for
metro structures. Likewise, ensuring traffic movement with minimal disruptions with enorm-
ous excavations works for the project required several innovative solutions. At many loca -
tions, no alternate traffic diversion route is available thus necessitating complete temporary
decking with a few construction openings. Other criticalities included deep excavation very
close to the existing flyovers, ATC tower. Excavation techniques that cause lesser distress to
these structures were used. Continuous instrumentation and monitoring schemes were imple-
mented for sensitive structures. Micro piling systems were used at the locations where low
height clearance was available such as under the flyover and under big trees. One of the
unique challenges was to save a 100-year-old Banyan tree coming on top of the planned sta-
tion. The tree was saved by slightly shifting the station and drilling a shallow pile to save its
root. Two examples illustrating above challenges and solutions proposed are detailed below.

3.2 Station at Dadar

The challenges faced here were space constraints, high water table, rock at 10m depth and
proximity of planned high rise building. There were several existing utilities with no space to
divert them and maintaining 4 lanes of traffic during construction. Innovations introduced are
partially staggered platform, secant pile, temporary concrete decking and hanging of large size
pipeline trough concrete decking as there is no space to divert the same.

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Figure 4: Location of Dadar Station showing Constrained Location

Figure 5: Geology at Dadar Station

Rock is at a shallow depth varying from 6m to 12m. The water table is at ground level. There-
fore, a suitable method of retaining the topsoil / soft rock portion was secant pile wall. Excava-
tion in the hard rock portion was supported using shotcrete with rock bolting.

To minimize traffic disruption, temporary decking is required immediately after the first layer
of excavation is completed. Bored cast in-situ pile was installed to carry vertical load of deck -
ing below the soffit of the base slab. Normally, pile are installed from below the base slab with
plunge column embedded in it and going till top to receive the decking load. However, here
bored cast-in situ pile is continued till ground level to carry the vertical load of concrete deck -
ing, construction load and traffic.

Dadar Station is located underneath existing roads. In this cases traffic diversion is not pos -
sible due to importance of road and absence of alternative road with required capacity. In such
circumstances full temporary traffic diversion cannot be proposed. Conventional steel decking
system could not be adopted due to presence of utilities and space constraint as well as limit-
ing settlement in buildings almost touching the excavation boundary. To overcome these diffi-
culties, concrete decking is proposed.

In addition, 2 nos. of water pipelines of 1.4m diameter are running along the station. For these
utilities relocation was not possible. These had to be supported for the entire duration of con-

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struction. Also, a maintenance walkway and ladder were made along the entire station running
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along utility to maintain the water pipeline in case of emergency. The hanging support system
was also designed for one support missing condition. An elastomeric pad was provided both at
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top and bottom to avoid knife edge contact between support and water pipeline.

Figure 6: Concrete Decking and Utility Support at Dadar Station

3.3 Station at Sahar Road

Typical Geology along the station consists of the top 5m of Soil, 5m to 12m of weathered
rock, 12m-20m of moderately weathered rock followed by slightly weathered rock afterward.
The water table was at Ground level. Since majority of the excavation had to be done in rock,
the station was planned to be constructed by bottom-up method. The challenge here was to
retain soil and rock and to make a watertight temporary earth retaining system around the
excavation boundary and handling utilities such as large diameter water pipes from 1.45m to
2.7m dia which were more than 50yrs old. These utilities could not be diverted and had to be

supported for the entire construction duration.

Figure 7: Geology at Sahar Road Station.

These water pipes which are the lifeline of Mumbai’s suburban water supply had to be suppor-
ted without interrupting the water flow to facilitate the bottom-up construction. Novel tech-
niques and methodology were used to overcome all the challenges such as drilling 25m in hard

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rock to install the king post and using a space truss system to support the utilities by top-down
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construction technique. The king post piles are a group of circular hollow tubes braced to -
gether to form a built-up section during excavation. A series of 36 number steel trusses erected
over king post support the pipelines using circular hollow sections as suspenders. The trusses
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are fabricated using square hollow box section. Transportation of large-span trusses after fab-

rication in Mumbai city was also a challenge.

Figure 8:Temporary Works for Utility support at Sahar Station by Top-Down approach in
Rock.

3.0 Geological Boundary Conditions

General Geology

The geological setup of the project area (in Mumbai) falls within the Deccan Volcanic
Province which covers over 500,000 square km (512,000 km3 in volume) in Maharashtra,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Saurashtra areas of the Indian subcontinent. The Deccan Traps
consists of a succession of several lava flows the total thickness of which is up to 2000 m.
The individual lava flows are basaltic and are generally horizontal or nearly horizontal. The
lava flows are believed to have originated about 65 million years ago at the end of the Meso -
zoic era. The individual lava flows are a few meters to nearly 100 m thick. Sometimes the lava
flows are several kms in extent but can reach to over 100 km in extent.

The Mumbai region in particular belongs to the younger phase of Deccan Volcanism and is
believed to be about 60 million years old. Besides the basaltic lavas there are also several
horizons of pyroclastic material like tuffs and volcanic breccia. In some locations intermediate
and acidic rocks like trachyte and rhyolite are also encountered. During the intermittent phases
of quiescence (in volcanic eruption) there are also deposition of sedimentary rocks like shale
which occur as intercalations along with the basalts or tuffs and volcanic breccia and are
termed as intertrappeans. Compared to the low or nearly horizontal dips of the lava flows of
general Deccan Volcanic Province, in Mumbai region the dips range between 5 to 20°.

The bedding of basaltic flows and other rock horizons generally has dips in westerly direction

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with dip amounts ranging between 5° to 20°. The strikes of these are N-S to NNE-SSW direc -
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tion. There are other joint sets orthogonally oriented with respect to these with steep or nearly
vertical dips and also joints with moderate dips in range of 40° to 60°.

Geology at Dadar
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The geological profile for Dadar station is presented in Figure 5.

The geology for the Dadar station area consists of thick layer of soil varying in thickness from

6.85 m to 11.50 m of which the top 1.5 m to 3.0 m is fill material (made ground) consisting of
road materials, sand, silt and gravel. Below this, soil consisting of silty sand up to a depth of

5.00 m and is underlain by silty clay/clayey silt with the presence of gravel at certain loca-
tions. Marine clay horizon is also encountered in some locations. The cohesive soil layer is
terminated at various depths ranging from 6.85 m to 11.50 m below ground level.

The rock is predominantly basalt with weathering grades III and II (classification of the

weathering grades as per IS 4464- 1985). Besides basalts there are also horizons of pyroclastic
materials comprising volcanic breccia and tuffs. These are also generally in the weathering
grades II and III, however some minor proportion also fall in grade IV especially in the shal-
low depth immediately below the soil. The volcanic breccia and tuff horizons are also inter-
bedded with intertrappean shale layers which usually occur as intercalations or thin bands
ranging from 1 or 2 cm to nearly 30cm in thickness.

The strength of basalt rock ranges from 4 to 72 Mpa (average 40Mpa), for volcanic breccia the
range is from 13 to 74 (average 35 Mpa) and tuffs from 9 to 38 Mpa (average 22.5 Mpa).

The ground water levels during borehole investigation were around 4 to 5m depth. The per-
meability tests (Double Packer Tests) in rock in Dadar have generally given low values (< 3
Lugeons) while maximum was around 10 Lugeons.

Authors
Ashish Srivastava (corresponding author)
ashish.srivastava@tcpl.com
Tandon Consultants Pvt.Ltd.
17, Jangpura Extension Rd.
New Delhi - 110014
India

Dr Ateeq Khateeb
ateeq.khateeb@geoconsult.co.in
Geoconsult India Pvt.Ltd.
Mumbai Address ?
India

Navneet Gupta
navneet.gupta@tcpl.com
Tandon Consultants Pvt.Ltd.
17, Jangpura Extension Rd.
New Delhi - 110014

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India
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Rakesh R
rakesh@tcpl.com
Tandon Consultants Pvt.Ltd.
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17, Jangpura Extension Rd.
New Delhi - 110014
India

Suyash Trivedi,
Chief Project Manager- IV
Suyash.trivedi@mmrcl.com
Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL)
NaMTTRI Building,
BKC, BANDRA East
Mumbai 400051
India

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