Afcons Begins Lowering Bangalore Metro’s TBM S1264 at RMS
Workers from Afcons Infrastructure on Thursday night began lowering parts of tunnel boring machine S-1264 at a shaft adjacent to the Rashtriya Military School Station (near Vellara Junction) on Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line (Reach 6) which will connect Nagawara – Kalena Agrahara through 18 stations.
This earth pressure balance (EPB) machine is the first of 3 Herrenknecht machines which will be deployed by Afcons for constructing twin tunnels on the 3.655 km Package RT-01 (Rashtriya Military School Station – Dairy Circle Ramp) of the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project.
The machine passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in November 2020 at Herrenknecht’s Indian plant at Alinjiwakkam, Tamil Nadu (view images with Indian-flag themed cutterhead) and arrived in Bengaluru in early January.
Per the tunneling plan, it will build both twin tunnels between Rashtriya Military School Station and Langford Town Station – a one-way distance of 596 meters which Afcons hopes to accomplish in 235 days. From Langford Town Station, the machine will excavate back northwards.
A total of 9 TBMs will be deployed by Afcons (3), Larsen & Toubro (4) and ITD Cementation (2) for constructing the city’s Pink Line. Here’s a status with figures displayed from BMRCL’s December 2020 newsletter. The upcoming January newsletter should give a more current status of tunneling progress.
| TBM | Status |
| S-1259 | Parts are at Dairy Circle Ramp Site |
| S-1260 | Parts are at Dairy Circle Ramp Site |
| S-1264 | Lowering of parts has started at RMS Shaft (this post) |
| DZ669 (Avni) | Commissioned in Sept 2020 (238/1089m) |
| DZ670 (Urja) | Commissioned in July 2020 (235/860m) |
| DZ671 (Vindhya) | Commissioned in October 2020 (150/860m) |
| DZ672 (Lavi) | Getting configured for commissioning (lowered in July 2020) |
| S-839B (Tunga) | Factory acceptance tests completed Jan 27-29 |
| S-840B (Bhadra) | Factory acceptance tests completed Jan 27-29 |
For more updates, check out my Home Page!
– TMRG
Was just wondering about afcons tbms.
Nice to know the machines are in action.
The commissioning of this line depends a lot on the rework of recently cancelled tender. This part is essential for connecting service depot. I hope the re-tender happens on time and the current deadline of 2024 doesn’t amuse me anymore with these facts.
I don’t understand the logic behind using 3 TBMs for 3.655KM by Afcons and only 2 for 4.591KM by ITD. Is it something to do with earth composition?
@TMRG please shed you thoughts on this.
The Afcons section, though smaller, has more rock sections compared with the ITD section.
Yea, geology is definitely the only factor at play here
Can any one help with a contact for ITD Bangalore, tunnel in charge or tbm in charge please
Hi, send me a message here and I can try to connect: https://themetrorailguy.com/contact/
Done!.
When will outer ring road to Bangalore airport metro work starts and tender
March 2021
2A (Silkboard – KR Pura) – tenders opened, work order not issued yet.
2B (KR Pura – Airport) – tender opening date rescheduled 7th time and now due for 3rd April.
Both these lines are yet to get the center’s approval (2 more offices to pass)
BMRCL already taken up acquisition, demolition, utility shifting works on these lines.
On the ground reality many new skywalks are being built on this route. I guess only to take them down soon.
Even new buildings are being built in this K.R puram- BIA route which comes in line of the project. No sure are they aware that later they all will be brought down to dust by BMRCL.
New skywalks, new buildings coming up will be clear as BMRC has acquired almost all the required land for the airport line.
A strip adjacent NH on the right is reserved for the metro (bought from NHAI that had earlier acquired it for the high speed airport line that got canceled in favor of a limited stop metro).
The last time i saw around two weeks ago, only soil testing was going on in Langford Road station.
The site barricading also has not begun, not sure if BMRCL has even got the possession of the property from the Defence authorities.
That’s interesting. I’ll try asking around to see what’s up.
Yes, I concur with this.
The road near the Langford Station is quite narrow with defense land on one side and residential layout on the other. It is interesting how they plan to tunnel backwards from here
Hi…
When will they rollout new tender for Gottigere line.. which was cancelled from Simplex
Don’t know – hopefully soon. Will share when they do.
At this rate, Bangalore Metro will complete the underground sections before the elevated ones on Gottigere, Hosur Road and Whitefield. 🙂
A dubious distinction but nevertheless a first for any metro in India!