A City Beneath The City—Mumbai Planning 70 Km Underground Tunnel Network: Report

Mumbai’s urban mobility landscape is set to witness more infrastructure leaps as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is proposing a plan a 70 km network of tunnels running beneath the city, according to a report by The Print.

The project is expected to be developed in three phases, with MMRDA currently in the process of hiring a consultant to prepare a techno-economic feasibility study and a detailed project report (DPR) for the first phase.

“The tunnels will help divert a significant amount of through traffic underground and reduce the surface-level congestion. The idea is to help ease bottlenecks across the city’s arterial routes,” a MMRDA official was quoted as saying in the report.

Phase One: Linking Coastal Road to BKC and Airport

In its first phase, the project envisions a 16 km underground corridor connecting the southern end of the coastal road—from Marine Drive to the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link—to the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) and Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

The tunnel will also link to the proposed Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train station at BKC, enhancing multimodal connectivity across the city’s transport hubs.

Future Phases: East-West and North-South Corridors

The second phase, approximately 10 km long, will focus on establishing an east-west connection between the Eastern Express Highway and Western Express Highway, providing direct access to the airport and easing cross-city travel.

The third and final phase, the most extensive at around 44 km, will form a continuous north-south underground corridor, facilitating uninterrupted movement for freight and passengers across Mumbai’s full stretch without burdening surface-level roads.

Complementing Ongoing Tunnel Projects

The new network will complement ongoing infrastructure projects such as the 9 km Orange Gate–Marine Drive tunnel, linking the Eastern Freeway to the coastal road and slated for completion by 2028–29 and the 11.85 km Thane–Borivali twin tunnel under Sanjay Gandhi National Park, expected by 2028.

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