History of Delhi Metro Pink Line’s Majlis Park – South Campus Section

With less than 9 hours to go for the launch of Delhi Metro’s 21.565 km Majlis Park – Durgabai Deshmukh South Campus section of the new 58.59 km Pink Line (Line-7), here’s a post with some brief high-level information on the line’s history. I’ve divided its timeline up into 3 distinct periods which’ll help demonstrate how much time was spent on each activity.

Popularly known as the ‘Ring Line’ or the ‘Ring Road Line’, this 21 km metro route was originally targeted to open in December 2016 and will today become the largest section of the 162.5 km Phase 3 project to be opened in one go. Elsewhere, testing on the IP extension and Maujpur (10.47 km) section began in February, and in the coming months is expected to begin between South Campus & Mayur Vihar (approx 18 km).

Contractors building this section faced issues of varying degree such as having to tunnel precariously just inches within the Red Line viaduct’s foundation, tunnel beneath the Western Yamuna Canal & Northern Railways’ Delhi-Ambala Line, and having to wait for the DMRC to acquire and hand over land at various places and the government to clear slums at Punjabi Bagh & Mayapuri.

That said, nothing comes even close to the tunneling issues faced in Rameshwar Nagar (close to the mouth of the Mukundpur Depot) where two TBMs got stuck on the Azadpur to Majlis Park Ramp drive in 2015 after meeting with a large mass of intact rock which prevented both machines, configured primarily for soft-ground, from tunneling any further. Following that, an emergency mid-shaft had to be constructed, and 2 rescue TBMs were leased from HCC-Samsung JV (CC-34 on Magenta Line) & deployed from the opposite end for constructing the pending 600m twin tunnels. This is the sole reason why trial runs (testing) started only in June 2017 despite the first Hyundai Rotem train being flagged off, in what was merely a photo-op event, in May 2016.

This section consists of 7 civil packages. Here’s a list (north to south) –

• CC-58 – Mukundpur Depot’s Pre-engineered Buildings
• CC-14 – Mukundpur Depot – Majlis Park Ramp – 1.7 km with 1 elevated station at Majlis Park
• CC-04 – Majlis Park Ramp – Shalimar Bagh: 2.8 km with 1 underground station at Azadpur
• CC-30 – Shalimar Bagh – Shakurpur Ramp: 2.2 km with 2 underground stations at Shalimar Bagh & Netaji Subhash Place
• CC-28 – Shakurpur Ramp – Mayapuri Ramp: 7.8 km with 5 elevated stations at Shakurpur, Punjabi Bagh East, ESI Hospital, Rajouri Garden, Mayapuri
• CC-20 – Mayapuri Ramp – Delhi Cantt Ramp: 1.8 km with 1 underground station at Naraina Vihar
• CC-17 – Delhi Cantt Ramp – RK Puram Ramp: 7 km with 3 elevated stations at Delhi Cantonment, South Campus & Moti Bagh

Pre-Construction Period (2011-2012)

• After appointing Systra as the Detailed Design Consultant on August 23 2011, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation invited global ICB bids for bulk of the main-line’s construction in the 2nd half of 2011 and 1st half of 2012.

• Majority of the contracts were awarded in 2012 –

Package	Contractor	Value(Rs)	Award Date
CC-04	CEC – CICI JV	416.80 cr	Dec 29 2011
CC-14	Arvind Techno Engr	123.40 cr	Jan 2 2013
CC-17	Larsen & Toubro	266.41 cr	Apr 20 2012
CC-20	J Kumar – CRTG JV	374.07 cr	July 12 2012
CC-28	Larsen & Toubro	377.42 cr	Aug 21 2012
CC-30	Hindustan Constr Co	372.97 cr	Oct 22 2012
CC-58	Richa Industries	19.96 cr	Sept 18 2014

Construction Period (2013-2017)

• For CC-04, CEC-CICI JV originally planned to deploy 2 TBMs for 4 breakthroughs, but had to lease an additional 2 TBMs. In the end, 6 breakthroughs were accomplished by 4 Herrenknecht TBMs:
TBM-1 – S780: Azadpur – Shalimar Bagh and Azadpur – Gurudwara Shaft (down-line)
TBM-2 – S781: Azadpur – Shalimar Bagh and Azadpur – Gurudwara Shaft (up-line)
TBM-3 – S495: Majlis Park Ramp Shaft – Gurudwara Shaft (up-line)
TBM-4 – S496: Majlis Park Ramp Shaft – Gurudwara Shaft (down-line)

•  For CC-30, HCC deployed a single refurbished Herrenknecht machine (which saw action in Germany, Taiwan & Delhi for Yellow Line in Phase 1/2 as S-81). Post refurbishment, it was re-branded as S-197 and most recently was deployed to build the Grey Line’s Najafgarh tunnels. On the Pink Line, this TBM was launched from Netaji Subhash Place towards Shalimar Bagh for the up-line tunnel, and then relaunched again towards Shalimar Bagh to build the down-line tunnel.

• For CC-20, J Kumar – CRTG deployed 2 Terratec EPBs to make 4 breakthroughs:
TBM-1 – S26: Delhi Cantt Ramp Shaft – Naraina Vihar – Mayapuri Ramp Shaft (down-line)
TBM-2- S27: Delhi Cantt Ramp Shaft – Naraina Vihar – Mayapuri Ramp Shaft (up-line)

TBM Breakthrough Timeline

• March 12 2014 – HCC’s TBM S-197 arrived at Shalimar Bagh from Netaji Subhash Place (1247m up-line)

• September 10 2014 – HCC’s TBM-1 S-197 arrived again at Shalimar Bagh from Netaji Subhash Place (1230m down-line)

• November 7 2014 – CEC-CICI’s TBM S-780 arrived at Shalimar Bagh from Azadpur (1448m up-line)

• November 25 2014 – CEC-CICI’s TBM S781 arrived at Shalimar Bagh from Azadpur (1443m down-line)

• October 5 2015 – J Kumar – CRTG’s TBM S26 arrived at Naraina Vihar Station from Delhi Cantt Ramp Shaft (803m down-line) – more info & images

• October 26 2015 – J Kumar – CRTG’s TBM S27 arrived at Naraina Vihar Station from Delhi Cantt Ramp Shaft (800m up-line) – more info & images

• February 3 2016 – J Kumar – CRTG’s TBM S26 arrived at Mayapuri Ramp Shaft from Naraina Vihar (310m down-line) – more info & images

• March 2 2016 – J Kumar – CRTG’s TBM S27 made a final breakthrough for the package at Mayapuri Ramp Shaft from Naraina Vihar (308m up-line) – more info & images

• November 22 2016 – CEC-CICI’s TBM S781 arrived at Gurdwara Mid-Shaft from Azadpur Station (approx 500m up-line tunnel) – more info & images

A breakthrough image isn’t available. Here’s a snap of the TBM’s screw conveyor getting lifted out of the shaft –

• December 19 2016 – CEC-CICI’s TBM S495 arrived at the Gurdwara Mid-Shaft from the Majlis Park Ramp (approx 600m up-line tunnel) – more info & images

• March 19 2017 – CEC-CICI’s TBM S496 arrived at the Gurdwara Mid-Shaft from the Majlis Park Ramp (approx 600m down-line tunnel) – more info & images

• April 29 2017 – CEC-CICI’s TBM S780 made a final breakthrough for the package at the Gurudwara Mid-Shaft from Azadpur (approx 500m down-line tunnel) – more info & images

Launching of Steel Bridges

Along the way, Larsen & Toubro and its subcontractors assembled and pushed 4 steel truss bridges for the elevated Package CC-28 –

• August 21 2015 – 60m Rajouri Garden Steel Bridge pushed under the Blue Line’s viaduct – more info & images

• January 19 2016 – 60m Punjabi Bagh Steel Bridge pushed under the Green Line’s viaduct & over NH-10 – more info & images

• May 16 2016 – 54m Shakurpur Steel Bridge pushed over the Indian Railways’ Delhi-Fazilka Line – more info & images

• July 28 2017 – 60m Mayapuri Steel Bridge pushed over the Indian Railways’ Delhi-Rewari Line.

Post-Construction Period (2017-2018)

Trial runs (testing) on this new line commenced on a 6.5 km portion between Shakurpur and Mayapuri in June 2017, and were then extended further south to South Campus (Dhaula Kuan) in August. DMRC completed all testing in early February 2018 following which a thorough 3-day final inspection was conducted by the CMRS between February 26-28. DMRC then received the CMRS’ approval certifying the line fit for commercial operations on March 8, 2018.

For 25+ nice images & videos shot inside this section’s stations, check out this post.

For more updates, check out the Delhi section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG