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.

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Ashram – Vinobhapuri section – view Delhi Metro map & information

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Vinobhapuri’s D-wall while waiting for the breakthroughs

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TBM S28 is here!

Photo Copyright: Ankur Bishnoi

Photo Copyright: Ankur Bishnoi

..and here's TBM S25

..and here’s TBM S25

TBMs S25 (left) and S28 (right) at Vinobhapuri

TBMs S25 (left) and S28 (right) at Vinobhapuri

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TBM S25 – Photo Copyrght: Ankur Bishnoi

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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

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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

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

14 Responses to "Final Double TBM Breakthrough Achieved for Delhi Metro’s Pink Line"

  1. Shailesh Gupta says:

    Congrats to the J. Kumar Infraprojects team

    Reply
  2. Naveen says:

    Congrats to all Dilliwalas from Bangalore! We just had our final breakthrough in September 🙂

    Reply
  3. Nalin says:

    Waiting for more photos..I’m so happy xD

    What’s the progress between Vasant Vihar and Munirka?

    Reply
  4. Aishwarye says:

    Congratulations to DMRC for finally wrapping up the tunneling works for the Pink Line.

    Reply
  5. Kundan Singh says:

    Ohh teri

    Reply
  6. Aditya Benwal says:

    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.

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      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.

      Reply
  7. Chinmay says:

    Thanks for the update. Can you update the ‘Quick Snapshot’ link on your blog.

    Reply
  8. Abc says:

    DMRC claims to open botanical garden-kalkaji section by march 2017 for commuters as trials are on the same section.
    Wats ur opinion bro.

    Reply
  9. Abc says:

    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.

    Reply

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