Overview

• Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw marked a 4.88–4.9 km tunnel breakthrough between Ghansoli and Shilphata, a NATM-excavated section within a planned 21 km underground stretch that includes a 7 km undersea segment under Thane Creek.
• Project teams said remaining underground excavation will shift to tunnel-boring machines, with three Herrenknecht TBMs being mobilised to JNPA for launch from shafts at BKC, Vikhroli and Sawli.
• Officials reiterated phased bullet train openings: Surat–Bilimora targeted by December 2027, the line reaching Thane in 2028 and Mumbai’s BKC in 2029, with services planned to start at 30-minute headways and tighten over time.
• Trial runs began on the priority Thane section of Mumbai Metro Lines 4/4A on a roughly 10.5 km stretch between Gaimukh and Cadbury Junction, following technical inspections by CM Devendra Fadnavis and DCM Eknath Shinde.
• MMRDA projected phased Metro openings toward full corridor readiness by 2027, pending Independent Safety Assessor and CMRS clearances, with an integrated Mogharpada depot and expected ridership rising to about 2.1 million daily once fully connected.