Study of Feasible Alternatives for Promoting Inland Vessel Navigation in Thane Creek, Mumbai

With increase in population and traffic throughout Mumbai city, an alternate transport system of inland navigation was proposed through 47km long stretch of Thane creek originating from Arabian Sea to Ulhas River. However, to encounter various constraints in the stretch like inadequate clearance of bridges during Mean High Water Spring Level, navigation depth required for container, passenger and cargo vessels during Mean Low Water Spring Level and Tide-current dominance especially at Thane central railway bridge, certain Field investigation and measurements were undertaken followed by numerical modelling to understand tidal hydrodynamics in the creek both pre and post-monsoon of the particular year of 2017. Further, to instigate the proposal, lock gate systematics were thoroughly reviewed and designed as per the inspection carried out by a Technical committee in the year of 1976. To overcome the logistics and financial burden for instigating the works, an alternate concept of specialized vessels was put forward to overcome the site difficulties. Furthermore, with the presence of weathered rocky bed in the creek at bridge locations, rock dredging was considerably questioned. However, numerical modelling to predict the dynamic responses of bridge piers and rocky bed against failure during dredging was carried out followed by introducing a diaphragm retaining wall protecting two bridge piers of long span of required dredged depth for allowing controlled one-way navigation at the selective site. The details of the study are presented in this paper.