L&T’s TBMs Pass Through Mumbai Metro’s Hutatma Chowk Station

After recording breakthroughs in October by Surya-2 and November by Surya-1, Larsen & Toubro – Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Company (L&T – STEC) JV has started moving both tunnel boring machines through Hutatma Chowk Station on Mumbai Metro’s 33.5 km Aqua Line (Line-3).

Both of these Robbins Crossover XRE TBMs, with a 6.65 meter diameter, have just one more tunneling assignment left and that is to complete the twin tunnels towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) – a distance of 551m on the up-line tunnel and 556m on the down-line tunnel.

While Surya-1 on the up-line is being dragged through the station’s 233m cut & cover box using hydraulic jacks towards its northern-end, Surya-2 on the parallel down-line is tunneling through the station’s NATM-mined tunnel – generating the most unique tunneling sight in India. I really hope either one of Robbins, L&T or Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) is filming a time-lapse as it moves through.

More on details on the unique Hutatma Chowk Station can be viewed here.

After Surya-2 passes through Hutatma Chowk Station’s vicinity, workers will dismantle the tunnel rings built by it. What you’re seeing above and below is the station’s future down-line platform area.

Surya-1 is scheduled to be recommissioned towards CST Station by mid January. Here’s a status of package UGC-01 between Cuffe Parade and CST stations where 2 breakthroughs are pending. This table is best viewed on a desktop device –

TBM	Line	From	To	Distance	Status
1	Up	Cuffe Parade	Vidhan Bhavan	1128m	Completed
1	Up	Vidhan Bhavan	Churchgate	498m	Completed
1	Up	Churchgate	Hutatma Chowk	649m	Completed
1	Up	Hutatma Chowk	CST	551m	Yet to Begin
2	Down	Cuffe Parade	Vidhan Bhavan	1254m	Completed
2	Down	Vidhan Bhavan	Churchgate	481m	Completed
2	Down	Churchgate	Hutatma Chowk	653m	Completed
2	Down	Hutatma Chowk	CST	556m	Yet to Begin

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

– TMRG