NEW YORK — The project to rehabilitate a key New York City subway tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn is on track to be finished even sooner than expected.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday said the L train renovation is now expected to be completed by April, a year after it started and ahead of the 15-month projection of how long it would take.

The original plan to repair damage caused by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 called for a shutdown of the East River tunnel, but in January Cuomo called that off in favor of the current plan, which only requires work on nights and weekends.

The L line is one of the city's most crowded. There are about 400,000 rides daily, and more than half go through the tunnel.