TBM Makes Breakthrough at Delhi Metro’s Aravali Mid-Shaft

Yet another breakthrough! This is the 4th one for the month after recent breakthroughs at the Pink line’s Mayapuri shaft, Magenta line’s Panchsheel Park station and the Violet line’s Delhi Gate station.

This time around, a Hitachi TBM deployed by the L&T-SUCG team for contract CC-27 of Delhi Metro’s Phase 3 project made a breakthrough at the Magenta line’s Aravali mid-shaft! The TBM excavated & built a 652m long tunnel for the new 38.235 km Magenta line’s down-line after being commissioned from the Vasant Vihar station in August 2015. As previously mentioned, the TBM actually reached the mid-shaft last week. The contractor then took 3 days to drill through the shaft’s diaphragm wall to reveal the TBM’s cutterhead and remove debris.

Satellite view of the Aravali mid-shaft

Alignment of the Vasant Vihar – Aravali midshaft section – view Delhi Metro map & information

Relic inside a Greek temple, anyone? – Photo Copyright: Shalabh Gupta

TBM Breakthrough #9 for L&T-SUCG – Photo Copyright: Shalabh Gupta

The 38.235 km Magenta line between Janakpuri W and Botanical Garden in Noida now has only 6 more TBM breakthroughs to go before all tunneling works are wrapped up:

For a comprehensive report with progress made on all lines’ tunnels, please see my March 2016 Tunneling Update.

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

– TMRG