Bangalore Metro’s TBM Margarita Makes a Breakthrough at North Ramp Close to Sampige Road Station

A little more than an hour ago, TBM Margarita deployed by the CEC-CICI JV team for Bangalore Metro’s Phase 1 project made a breakthrough at the North Ramp on the north-south Green line! Due to the original contractor (Coastal-TTS JV)’s incompetence, the CEC-CICI team which was originally in-charge of tunneling the east-west Purple line had to be brought in to the tunnel this downline section.

The TBM started its ~970m journey in October 2014 from the Majestic interchange station as shown by the maroon arrow below:

Satellite imagery of the North Ramp where the breakthrough took place:

Some images from my Facebook friends (you may add me here):

Almost there – Photo Copyright: รณชัย ท่านเป็น ต่อ ฤทธิ์พวง

THE moment – Photo Copyright: Adarsh Ratan

Done! – Photo Copyright: รณชัย ท่านเป็น ต่อ ฤทธิ์พวง

The view that people have been dreaming of! – Photo Copyright: Nandu Kumar

Workers with Thai and Indian flags – Photo Copyright: รณชัย ท่านเป็น ต่อ ฤทธิ์พวง

Proud CEC-CICI team – Photo Copyright: รณชัย ท่านเป็น ต่อ ฤทธิ์พวง

Selfie time! – Photo Copyright: รณชัย ท่านเป็น ต่อ ฤทธิ์พวง

Photo Copyright: Biswajit Saha

Photo Copyright: Adarsh Ratan

Pure joy! – Photo Copyright: Biswajit Saha

With this breakthrough out of the way, tunneling on only 3 more sections is left in order to complete Phase 1’s tunnels. The 3 TBMs working on these sections are:

1. TBM Godavari – This TBM was launched in May 2013 from the North Ramp and is currently on its way to the Majestic station with a new cutterhead that was installed in July.
2. TBM Kaveri – This TBM was launched from the Chickpet station in February 2015 is currently on its way to the Majestic station.
3. TBM Krishna – This TBM made a breakthrough at Chickpet station from the KR Market station on August 31 and is surprisingly yet to be launched towards Majestic station.

For more images & updates on Bangalore’s Metro, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG