Afcons’ TBM S-1264 Starts Tunneling for Bangalore Metro at RMS

Engineers from Afcons Infrastructure today commissioned tunnel boring machine S-1264 at Rashtriya Military School Station (near Vellara Junction) for Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line which will connect Nagawara – Kalena Agrahara through 18 stations.

This earth pressure balance (EPB) machine is the first of 3 Herrenknecht machines to 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.

RT-01: Dairy Circle Ramp – National Military School- view Bangalore Metro Phase 2 Info & Map

This refurbished TBM passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in November at Herrenknecht’s Indian plant at Alinjiwakkam, Tamil Nadu. Workers had started lowering its parts into the RMS Station’s shaft in mid-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.

Here are some snaps shot this morning. The shaft is extremely tight, so its backup gantry will be attached only after the initial drive is completed.

Site preparation / barricading works for Langford Town Station’s box finally began in February after a multi-year long land acquisition battle. Here’s an image by follower Oswald:

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.

With today’s development – 5 of those have started tunneling. Here’s a status of each with figures displayed from BMRCL’s February Newsletter

TBMStatus
S-1259Parts are at Dairy Circle Ramp Site (per a source lowering of parts has started. This remains unconfirmed)
S-1260Parts are at Dairy Circle Ramp Site
S-1264Tunneling has started (this post!)
DZ669 (Avni)Commissioned in Sept 2020 (319.5/1089m)
DZ670 (Urja)Commissioned in July 2020 (282/860m)
DZ671 (Vindhya)Commissioned in October 2020 (243/860m)
DZ672 (Lavi)Commissioned in February 2021
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

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

14 Responses to "Afcons’ TBM S-1264 Starts Tunneling for Bangalore Metro at RMS"

  1. Nishant Patel says:

    Whats the current status if mumbai metro Tunneling ? As of March 12th and what’s status of Tunneling in coastal road tbm ?

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Don’t have today’s numbers. As of mid-Feb, on L&T’s UGC-01:

      Surya-1: 339/ ~745 rings
      Surya-2: 265/ ~745 rings

      Mavala on Coastal Road project has hit 125m / 1920m

      Reply
  2. Himanshu Doria says:

    Hey TMRG, What is the difference between Slurry-based and Earth-Pressure TBMs ?

    Reply
  3. Kiran says:

    Congrats team Afcons. Good luck

    Reply
  4. Ravi says:

    What happen to bannerghatta metro work near IIM. Its completly stopped. This was constructing by simplex infra. Now they have terminated this project.

    Reply
  5. Ashok says:

    Any idea how the now terminated Slowplex work would be continued? Will there be new tenders or will it automatically go to next highest bidder of the previous bidding?

    Reply
  6. Abhimanyu says:

    Article mentions refurbished TBM from manufacturer’s India plant. I thought all TBMs for various metros were being imported till now.
    With metros being built in so many cities and expressways and high speed rail constructions going on, and a lot of underground digging required, it would make sense to make these machines in India — now that there is a sufficient demand. And these machines would be difficult to transport from overseas.

    Reply
  7. Ajaykumar says:

    When will the K R puram to Whitefield metro line be completed?

    Reply
  8. Chandan Puitandy says:

    Good job afcons..congrats.

    Reply

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