CIDCO has achieved a major milestone in its Augmentation of Hetawane Water Supply Scheme, with a water tunnel breakthrough at Shaft-4 in Wahal village, Panvel. The breakthrough, executed by Afcons Infrastructure, marks the first such achievement in CIDCO’s history across all its projects. The milestone was achieved under CIDCO’s Water Tunnel Package-1. The project includes an 8.7 km treated water tunnel, of which 5.52 km of tunnelling work has already been completed. Afcons has offered to complete the entire project six months ahead of the scheduled timeline while maintaining high safety and quality standards. Speaking on the occasion, Krischnamurthy Subramanian, Executive Chairman of Afcons, congratulated the project team, CIDCO and all stakeholders for achieving the milestone. He said the breakthrough was accomplished despite significant geological and logistical challenges, adding that innovative construction practices enabled the setting of national tunnelling records. He reaffirmed Afcons’ commitment to completing the project ahead of schedule without compromising on safety or quality. The Hetawane Water Supply Scheme is a key initiative aimed at meeting the growing water demand of Navi Mumbai and its developing regions. The overall scheme involves the construction of a 13.25 km raw water tunnel and a 15.4 km treated water tunnel. Upon completion, the project is expected to enhance CIDCO’s water supply capacity from the existing 120 million litres per day to 270 million litres per day. Vijay Singhal, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of CIDCO, said the water tunnel breakthrough represents a historic moment for the organisation. He noted that following the recent flight-taking-off milestone at Navi Mumbai International Airport, the tunnel breakthrough marks another significant achievement for CIDCO and the project.