GLM-TPL Begins Lowering Pune Metro’s TBM S81 at Swargate

Workers from Gulermak – Tata Projects Ltd. on Friday evening started lowering parts of tunnel boring machine S81 – the third and final machine of Pune Metro’s Phase 1 project – at the northern-end of Swargate Station on the 16.589 km Purple Line.

This Ø6.61m diameter Terratec earth pressure balance (EPB) machine passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in January 2020 and had arrived in town for building the 2.74 km Package UGC-02’s tunnels in February 2020. Since then, parts of it were stored at the station’s north-west corner waiting for the launch shaft and adjacent station area to get ready.

The machine is expected to be commissioned towards the end of March, and from here it will travel to Mandai, a distance of roughly 1297m, and onward to Budhwar Peth, a distance of roughly 860 meters.

Route of Pune Metro Line-1’s underground section – view Pune Metro route map & info
Photo shared by V Palanivel

The base of Swargate Station is 22 meters deep, and post-assembly the machine will be transported and deployed inside the 136m NATM scissor crossover cavern visible below:

Photo shared by Sheraz Khan

Waterproofing works at the base of Swargate Station started in December – view images here.

Meanwhile, S81’s sister TBMs S78 and S79 on Package UGC-01 up north are currently undergoing minor refurbishing works inside the Civil Court Station’s 155m NATM crossover cavern. Some really cool images of them being extracted out of the tunnels they built and into the crossover cavern can be viewed here and here (latest).

As shared earlier, either S78 or S79 might in the involved in building Package UGC-02’s tunnels from the north side, between Budhwar Peth – Mandai – Swargate, but that remains to be seen. I’m expecting all 3 machines to be on their way by April. Stay tuned…

For more updates on India’s metro systems, check out my Home Page!

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

8 Responses to "GLM-TPL Begins Lowering Pune Metro’s TBM S81 at Swargate"

  1. Shakti says:

    When do you think all tunneling will be completed by?

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      By the end of 2022?

      Stations at Mandai and Budhwar Peth are in the congested old/central part of town with little civil progress due to many constraints, so it remains to be seen if S81 will pass through Mandai or not. If it does, then that should shave off some time (1-2 months).

      Reply
  2. Anurag Kumar says:

    Hi TMRG,
    Deadline for the project of Agra metro has been changed from 26 months to 30 months..So we can expect Patna metro as well as Agra metro to get operational on the same year??

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Still early days to set an operational timeframe. As work progresses, let’s see what issues crop up.

      One thing we can all agree on is that they’ll start, in some restricted form or the other, by the 2024 elections.

      Reply
  3. Vishal Kumar says:

    How many underground station are there in phase 1 of Pune metro??

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Five. Map shows all the UG stations – Shivajinagar, Civil Court (Purple Line platforms only), Budhwar Peth, Mandai and Swargate

      Reply
      • Rasika says:

        Is there any plan for singhgad road.
        From swarget to Shayari OR Dhayari to Kharadi OR Dhyarai to Kalyani /Viman Nagar OR Dhayari to Jinke wadi

        Same of katraj

        Reply
  4. Kalpesh says:

    Looks like TMRG heading close to deliver their promised Metro to Punekar’s soon. What about Bhosari & Moshi metro planning?

    Reply

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