Navi Mumbai residents will now have a more consistent water supply as the City and Industrial Development Corporation’s (Cidco) Hetawane Water Supply Augmentation Scheme is nearing completion, officials said, adding that the project set a new national record in tunnelling in July, when it completed 777 m in one month using the tunnel-boring machine Flamingo.
The operation, executed with a tunnel-boring machine with a diameter of 3.2 m, is undertaken on an 8.7-km-long stretch in Package 1 of the scheme. Afcons Infrastructure, the contractor for the scheme, has completed 4.2 km of work. With the scheme, Cidco aims to ensure long-term water security in the Navi Mumbai and Panvel Municipal Corporation regions, the officials said.
The July record surpassed the earlier record of 653 m, set at Mumbai’s Amar Mahal II Tunnel in 2024. Afcons had already bettered the industry average in May by completing 714 m of tunnelling work in a month.
“This is a new benchmark in the national tunnelling industry. The record proves the team can deliver complex infrastructure projects quickly and with accuracy,” said R Anantakumar, Director–Urban Infrastructure, Afcons. He further stated that the company would maintain this pace in the coming months.
Engineers encountered a number of challenges along the alignment, which traverses Amygdaloidal basalt rocks of the Sahyadri range. There was not enough room to lay equipment, and muck and material had to be carried over a 4-km distance.
“The progress of the work depended on adaptive tunnelling techniques in order to overcome those challenges, and we have tackled them successfully,” a Cidco official said.
Cidco considers the Hetawane augmentation scheme one of its key projects to meet the rising water demands of Navi Mumbai’s growing population. Officials said the project would provide a steady and enhanced drinking water supply to the entire Navi Mumbai area under Cidco’s purview.
