Final Double TBM Breakthrough Achieved for Delhi Metro’s Pink Line
What a way to end tunneling works! 😀
Tunnel Boring Machines S25 and S28, both Ø6.61m classic EPB machines operated by the J Kumar-CRTG JV made a historic double breakthrough yesterday at the Vinobhapuri Station’s East Shaft to mark an end to the 58.6km Pink Line’s tunneling works for the Delhi Metro’s 160 km Phase 3 project.
Prior to this event, both TBMs made a breakthrough at Ashram Station in August and September 2014 from the Hazrat Nizamuddin station, and were subsequently commissioned in early 2015 to build the last 2 tunnels of package CC-24 (Hazrat Nizamuddin-Lajpat Nagar) between Ashram and Vinobhapuri. The TBMs traveled roughly 970m over a course of 20 months from Ashram and encountered everything from loose soil to mixed face hard quartz rock conditions that required frequent interventions and repair work to the cutterheads.
Vinobhapuri’s East Shaft where the breakthrough took place – this will be covered in Google’s subsequent updates.
Ashram – Vinobhapuri section – view Delhi Metro map & information
Vinobhapuri’s D-wall while waiting for the breakthroughs
TBM S28 is here!
Photo Copyright: Ankur Bishnoi
..and here’s TBM S25
TBMs S25 (left) and S28 (right) at Vinobhapuri
TBM S25 – Photo Copyrght: Ankur Bishnoi
TBM S28 – Photo Copyrght: Ankur Bishnoi
This is the 2nd instance of a double breakthrough taking place in India. The one prior to this was achieved in 2014 by the HCC-Samsung JV for package CC-34 at the Magenta Line’s Dabri Mor station. Watch a video on that here: [Video] Double Breakthrough at Delhi’s Dabri Mor
Double breakthrough at Dabri Mor (CC-34 project) – Photo Copyright: HCC
Incidentally, the HCC-Samsung JV later handed over both these TBMs, Riddhi (S495) and Siddhi (S496), to the CEC-CICI JV in 2015 to complete CC-04’s tunneling works where they are currently awaiting to be retrieved.
With tunneling works wrapped up, contractors on the Pink Line now need to retrieve 6 TBMs – 2 from here and 4 from the Gurdwara Shaft in north Delhi. Overall, the 160 km Phase 3 project has another 2 TBMs breakthroughs pending – 1 at the Magenta Line’s Munirka Station and another at the Hanuman Mandir Shaft in Najafgarh.
For more updates, check out Delhi section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Congrats to the J. Kumar Infraprojects team
Congrats to all Dilliwalas from Bangalore! We just had our final breakthrough in September 🙂
Waiting for more photos..I’m so happy xD
What’s the progress between Vasant Vihar and Munirka?
832/905 rings have been built. 1 ring=1.4m
Congratulations to DMRC for finally wrapping up the tunneling works for the Pink Line.
Ohh teri
Hey TMRG when do you expect the najafgarh tunelling to be complete. And what is the status of green line extension to bahadurgarh..you never talk abt that…no one does.
Hi, tunneling should be completed by April 2017.
Green Line’s extension is delayed due to land acquisition issues for the depot and general contractor delays elsewhere. I’ll share images on Twitter in the coming days, so do keep keep a tab on my twitter feed. I don’t cover updates on elevated stretches here as there aren’t any major milestones to report on.
Thanks for the update. Can you update the ‘Quick Snapshot’ link on your blog.
Hi, I’m planning to do that before the year ends. I just need to find a weekend with some time to spare.
DMRC claims to open botanical garden-kalkaji section by march 2017 for commuters as trials are on the same section.
Wats ur opinion bro.
Depends on the Okhla NSIC station’s completion. I think anytime around April-June sounds good.
Tunnel between vasant vihar- munirka is complete.Breakthrough is achieved on monday night.
Now we can expect whole section trial i.e kalindi-janakpuri by next 3-4 months.
Just posted about it. See: Final TBM Breakthrough Achieved for Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line