Delhi Metro Starts Tunneling on Pink Line from RK Puram Shaft to Bhikaji Cama Place

As expected, FEMC-Pratibha – the Delhi Metro’s contractor for the 58.59 km Pink line’s underground section between RK Puram and Lajpat Nagar (CC-18) has started tunneling on the westbound up-line tunnel between the RK Puram shaft and the Bhikaji Cama Place station!  Many images of the contractor lowering the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)’s parts in October can be seen here.

The tunneling distance between the two points is roughly 400 meters, so a breakthrough can be expected to take place as early as February 2016. However, a small delay of about a month could take place as the contractor cannot deploy a typical gantry crane (see example) in the middle of the busy Ring Road to remove muck. Due to that constraint, a crane with a lifting capacity of 300 tonnes will be deployed and this is expected to slow things down by a month. The official deadline for completing this section is May 25 2016, so this won’t be an issue at all as far as deadlines are concerned. 🙂

Satellite imagery of the RK Puram shaft from where the TBM has been launched:

Route:

Location & alignment of the RK Puram shaft to Bhikaji Cama Place section of Delhi Metro’s Pink line – view Delhi Metro map

Images:

Three temporary rings have already been placed! – Photo Copyright: Abhishek Anand

Looking inside at the TBM’s rear-end – Photo Copyright: Abhishek Anand

Young & proud engineers at the RKP Shaft – Photo Copyright: Abhishek Anand

For more updates on the Delhi Metro’s Phase 3, check out the Delhi section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG