29 December,2025 04:29 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
CIDCO has taken up the project to meet the growing water demand in Navi Mumbai’s developing areas. Pic/Special Arrangement
The City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) has achieved a major milestone with the first tunnel breakthrough in its history during the Hetawane water supply project in Navi Mumbai, an official statement said on Monday.
The breakthrough was achieved at Shaft-4 in Wahal village under Package-1, which is being executed by Afcons Infrastructure Ltd. This marks the first time CIDCO has recorded a tunnel breakthrough across all its projects.
The breakthrough took place in CIDCO's Water Tunnel Package-1, which includes an 8.7-kilometre treated water tunnel. Of this, 5.52 kilometres of tunnelling work has already been completed, the statement said.
Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Chairman of Afcons Infrastructure, congratulated the project team and CIDCO for achieving the milestone.
Subramanian said that despite geological and logistical challenges, the team adopted innovative methods and set national tunnelling records. He added that Afcons would complete the project six months ahead of schedule, while maintaining high standards of safety and quality, it said.
CIDCO has taken up the project to meet the growing water demand in Navi Mumbai's developing areas. The Hetawane Water Supply Scheme includes the construction of a 13.25-kilometre raw water tunnel and a 15.4-kilometre treated water tunnel. Once completed, the project will increase CIDCO's water supply capacity from 120 million litres per day (MLD) to 270 MLD, the official statement said.
CIDCO Vice Chairman and Managing Director Vijay Singhal described the breakthrough as a historic moment. He said that just days after the first flight took off from the Navi Mumbai International Airport, CIDCO had achieved another major milestone, it said.
Singhal praised Afcons for completing the tunnel breakthrough ahead of schedule and welcomed the company's commitment to finish the remaining work six months early. He urged other contractors involved in the project to complete their work on time or ahead of schedule, without seeking extensions.
Earlier, Afcons set a national tunnelling record by completing 777 metres of tunnelling in a single month using a 3.2-metre-diameter Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) named Flamingo. This surpassed the company's earlier record of 714 metres achieved in May this year, officials said.
