Pune Metro’s TBM S79 Records Breakthrough at Civil Court Station

Moments ago – tunnel boring machine (TBM) S79, nicknamed Mula, operated by the Gülermak – Tata Projects Limited JV made a breakthrough at the underground Civil Court Station on Pune Metro’s 16.589 km Line-1 (Purple Line). 

This was S79’s second (and penultimate) breakthrough, and the fourth breakthrough for Gulermak – TPL JV’s 3.78 km Package UGC-01 as well as the 6.52 km underground section of the 31.254 km Phase 1 project.

This Ø6.52m 100m long Terratec earth pressure balance machine was first commissioned from the Range Hills Ramp on January 5, 2020 to build a short 180 meter stretch of the down-line tunnel to a shaft at the College of Agriculture. After recording a breakthrough there in January-end, the TBM was then dragged across the 25 x 25 meter shaft built by J Kumar Infraprojects under a separate contract.

For its current assignment that ended today – the machine was re-commissioned from the College of Agriculture Shaft in February towards Civil Court Station, through the station box of Shivaji Nagar Station, to build the 1438 meter down-line tunnel.

Like its sister machine TBM S78, this feat by S79 was also accomplished at the northern-end of a 155 meter scissor crossover, built by the New Austrian Tunneling Method (NATM).

Route of Pune Metro Line-1’s underground section – view Pune Metro map & info
TBM S78 is still inside the up-line tunnel it built on the right. The mouth of that tunnel has been temporarily covered.
Cheers!
One last look inside the NATM Crossover tunnel with S79 visible in the back

Meanwhile, the city’s third TBM (S81) continues to sit at the Swargate Station site and is expected to be launched northwards in February 2021 towards Mandai Station. Some parts of it, covered in a red tarp, are visible in the top-left corner below:

Pune’s Swargate Station

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

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

2 Responses to "Pune Metro’s TBM S79 Records Breakthrough at Civil Court Station"

  1. Md Sheraz Khan says:

    Another Milestone added in Tata Projects journey , Congrats to entire team for the wonderful achievement…

    Reply
  2. Ad says:

    Amazing job. Once again post lockdown, work is speeding up steadily in Pune, elevated priority sections are also normalised & probably soon going to start as per their new schedule.

    Reply

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