Mumbai Metro’s TBM 1238 Retrieved & Transported as 1 Unit

Workers from the Doğuş-Soma JV and Freight Wings, with inspection support from Boss Technical Services, in Mumbai last week retrieved, lifted and transported Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) 1238’s entire shield, still assembled as a single unit, from Mumbai Metro’s 33.5 km Aqua Line (Line-3)’s Worli Station back to the Nehru Science Centre station.

This Ø6.65m refurbished Robbins NFM slurry machine, nicknamed Tansa-1, had arrived at the Worli Station in January 2020 from Science Centre Station after a 2072 m journey to record the first, and so far only, breakthrough out of 6 planned for package UGC-03.

In the interest of time – instead of dismantling the machine’s shields, Doğuş-Soma JV decided to transport the machine’s cutter head and shields as one complete unit back to Science Centre Station, from where it’ll be commissioned in the coming weeks towards Mahalaxmi Station for its final 1118m drive to build the up-line tunnel.

This was the very first time such a delicate operation was conducted in India, and it took over 30 hours to complete. To retrieve the TBM, Freight Wings deployed a 1200 ton capacity gantry crane with strand jacks, and on the evening of March 2 lifted the TBM out from a depth of 24 meters in 7 hours. The next day, the machine was transported on top of a trailer through Annie Besant and Dr E. Moses roads and brought to the southern-end of the Science Centre Station.

Route of Aqua Line’s Package UGC-03 (Mumbai Central – Worli) – view Mumbai Metro information & map
Ready to be lifted out – Photo Copyright: Yigit Manap
Looking down at the TBM’s shields – Photo Copyright: Boss Technical Services
6m done! Backup equipment is visible inside the tunnel – Photo Copyright: Boss Technical Services
Morning of March 3 – Photo Copyright: Yigit Manap
Closer look of the cutterhead and shields – Photo Copyright: Ibrahim Dikmen
Ready to be loaded – Photo Copyright: Ibrahim Dikmen
On its way to Science Centre on the night of March 3 – Photo Copyright: Yigit Manap

A similar operation can be expected to take place when TBM Tansa-2 arrives at Worli Station in the coming weeks.

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

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

7 Responses to "Mumbai Metro’s TBM 1238 Retrieved & Transported as 1 Unit"

  1. Ajay Mathur says:

    All concerned,

    The entire retrieval job of TBM is done by M/s. Freight Wings Pvt Ltd
    The total engineering and all structures belongs to Freight Wings Pvt Ltd.

    The above may please be noted and request to publish the same accordingly.

    With Best Regards
    Ajay Mathur
    Freight Wings Pvt LTD
    ±91 9322479988

    Reply
  2. Ajay Mathur says:

    Dear Sirs,

    The article is still to be updated, as the name Boss Technical Services is still mentioned instead of Freight Wings Pvt LTD. Boss technical services had no role except to just do the inspection.

    Hence, again request to please post as mentioned above.

    Awaited yours,

    Regards

    Ajay Mathur

    Reply
  3. MOHAMMAD SHEIKH JAVEED says:

    CONGRATULATIONS OUR DOGUSSOMA TBM TUNNELING EXPERT TEAM
    THANKYOU
    REGARDING
    MUHAMMAD JAVED

    Reply
  4. MMMADAN says:

    Congratulations team Soma-Dogus

    Reply

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