Mumbai, Oct 20 (IANS): The Maharashtra State Wildlife Board has accorded clearance for constructing a twin-tube tunnel road linking Borivali and Thane under the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, officials said here on Friday.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) will build the twin-tube tunnel through SGNP to link the eastern and western suburbs and slash the travel time by one hour between the two points.

The crucial clearance was granted at the 22nd meeting of the Board chaired by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and will pave the way for the project to get more approvals, said MMRDA Commissioner Sanjay Mukherjee.

As per the plan, the MMRDA will construct the 4-lane subterranean road, plus an emergency lane in both the twin-tubes, for the mega-project costing around Rs 16,600-crores including land acquisition, and likely to be completed in five years, through SGNP which is teeming with wildlife.

The tunnel road will be around 10.25 kms long plus an approach road of 1.55 kms, and the diameter of each tube tunnel will be 13.05 metres.

It will have a dedicated ventilation system all through the tunnel, cross passages at every 300 metres, fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, LED light, etc for the safety and convenience of the users.

To be built in several packages, two of the packages shall be constructed by Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Ltd., and four tunnel boring machines shall be deployed for the works.

The twin-tube tunnel road's construction will require about 46.57 hectares of land, of which nearly 35.54 hectares land is forest area under the control of the state government, mandating the Board’s approval before starting construction.

Besides saving time, fuel and costs, the new twin-tunnel road will provide a direct link between Ghodbunder Road in Thane (east) and Western Express Highway in Borivali (west).