Dogus-Soma Restarts Mumbai Metro’s TBM 1238 towards Mahalaxmi

Workers from Doğuş-Soma JV on Tuesday recommissioned tunnel boring machine (TBM) 1238 from Science Museum Station’s southern-end towards Mahalaxmi Station for package UGC-03 of Mumbai Metro’s 33.5 km Line-3 (Aqua Line).

This Ø6.65m refurbished Robbins NFM slurry machine, nicknamed Tansa 1, passed factory acceptance tests in August 2017, and was first commissioned from Science Museum Station on August 17, 2018 to build the 2072 meter up-line tunnel through Acharya Atre Chowk Station’s box towards Worli Station.

After recording a breakthrough at Worli on January 29, 2020, the machine’s cutterhead and shields – weighing 480 MT – were retrieved as one complete unit in March, transported through the city’s streets, and lowered back into Science Museum in July.

On Tuesday, the TBM began its second assignment to build the 1136m down-line tunnel towards Mahalaxmi Station from where it will actually now be dragged to the station box’s southern-end and recommissioned onwards to Mumbai Central Station for its final 830m assignment – a tweak in the tunneling plan confirmed by Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) in their tweet about TBM Tansa 2.

Earlier this year, SUCG Infrastructure India Pvt. Ltd. had been subcontracted the Mahalaxmi – Mumbai Central section to expedite tunneling works, but that arrangement no longer stands. I reached out to MMRC two weeks ago for a comment on this, but haven’t heard back.

Route of Aqua Line’s Package UGC-03 (Mumbai Central – Worli) – view Mumbai Metro information & map
First temporary ring erected within the station box

With this, development – here’s a table displaying UGC-03’s tunneling plan and status of each tunnel (best viewed on a desktop device). Note that TBM 1238 and 1239 have switched positions (up-line to down-line and down-line to up-line) for their onward journeys.

TBMLineFromToDistanceStatus
1UpScience MuseumWorli2072mCompleted Jan 2020
1DownScience MuseumMahalaxmi1136mIn Progress
1DownMahalaxmiMumbai Central830mPending Start
2DownScience MuseumWorli2057mCompleted March 2020
2UpScience MuseumMahalaxmi1118mPending Start
2UpMahalaxmiMumbai Central837mPending Start

Overall, 30 breakthroughs have been completed for Mumbai Metro’s Line-3, and there are now just 11 more pending – see a status table here.

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

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

5 Responses to "Dogus-Soma Restarts Mumbai Metro’s TBM 1238 towards Mahalaxmi"

  1. Abhinay Anand says:

    Soma is the “Simplex” of line 3. Client should have removed them after the first pair of tunnels were completed.

    Reply
  2. Shamsher Ram says:

    Looking for job 7 years experience metro project.

    Reply
  3. Aman kumar says:

    Electrician job apply

    Reply

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