New Cutterhead Fixed on TBM Godavari

The Tunnel Boring (TBM) machine nicknamed Godavari has finally got a new cutterhead! This 70 tonne part required for tunneling has now being fixed to the TBM roughly 60 feet below the ground. Here’s an image of it being lowered in all its glory:

Godavari’s New Cutterhead – photo: The Indian Express, used under Creative Commons License (By 2.0)

A little background:  Last year in August, TBM Godavari began tunneling from the Sampige Road side towards Majestic (Kempegowda). After covering a distance of 352 meters, it ran into hard rock right before the railway line. As such, the cutterheard was severely damaged and that rendered the machine immobile for months as a new cutterhead worth Rs 5 crore had to be ordered from a company called Palmeiri based in Italy. The original broken cutterhead was removed on this Friday evening through a vertical shaft specially dug for the purpose.

Cutterhead Retrieval Shaft – photo: BMRC, used under Creative Commons License (By 2.0)

Old, Damaged Cutterhead – photo: BMRC, used under Creative Commons License (By 2.0)

Once the old cutterhead was removed, the new cutterhead was lowered and fixed to the TBM as seen below.

New Cutterhead Fixed! – photo: Deccan Herald, used under Creative Commons License (By 2.0)

A lot of preparatory work has to be performed on-site, so we’ll have to wait at least another month before the TBM can start tunneling the rest of the 615 meters left towards Majestic. As per my estimates, that will take 3 to 4 months to complete. The  deadline for completing tunneling work for all four TBMs (Margarita, Godavari, Krishna, Kaveri) is set for December 2015, and with work set to resume on Godavari in another month, it’ll be quite a race to the finish!

– TMRG