Delhi Metro Starts Tunneling on Pink Line from Naraina Vihar to Mayapuri Shaft

On this Tuesday, the J Kumar-CRTG JV started tunneling on the Delhi Metro’s new Pink line’s down-line tunnel between the Naraina Vihar station and the Mayapuri shaft! This 310m tunnel section in south-west Delhi is part of the Delhi Cantonment to Mayapuri section (CC-20) of the 58.59 km Pink line which is being constructed as part of the 159 km Phase 3 project.

This TBM had made a breakthrough at Naraina Vihar from Delhi Cantt on October 5 after which it was dragged across the station’s length (~200m) using hydraulic jacks over a period of roughly 18 days. Many images of the contractor dragging the TBM can be viewed here.

Satellite imagery of the Naraina Vihar station from where the TBM was launched:

Alignment of this section:

Yellow star – Naraina Vihar station ; Purple star – Mayapuri Shaft

TBM lined up at the eye of the tunnel a few days ago – Photo Copyright: Abhay Kumar

And in he goes! (that’s what she said) – Photo Copyright: Abhay Kumar

If you notice, they only placed 1 temporary ring at the mouth of the tunnel as opposed to 3+ typically found at other locations.

A view of the backup gantry – Photo Copyright: Abhay Kumar

View from on top of the backup gantry. Carts on top of the rails will help to bring muck out of the  tunnel – Photo Copyright: Abhay Kumar

This 310m tunneling drive should realistically not take more than 3 months to be completed and I expect it’ll make a breakthrough sometime in February 🙂

With the launch of this TBM and the one yesterday at RK Puram, all 14 underground sections of the Pink line are now either ‘In Progress’ or ‘Complete’ – see complete list here.

For more updates on Delhi Metro’s Phase III, please visit the Delhi section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG