ITD Cem Lowers Bangalore Metro’s TBM Bhadra at Venkateshpura
ITD Cementation India on Wednesday started lowering parts of Tunnel Boring Machine Bhadra (S-840B) at Venkateshpura Station on Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line (Reach 6).
This refurbished Herrenknecht mixed-shield EPB machine, along with its sister machine TBM Tunga (S-839), had passed 3-day factory acceptance tests in January at Herrenknecht’s plant in Tamil Nadu.
Both machines are now being deployed to build four tunnels each for the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project’s 4.591 km package RT-04 (Tannery Road – North Ramp) in north Bengaluru.
Work for Venkateshpura Station’s launch shaft started in August 2020 and was completed in April 2021 through a series of controlled-blasts to assist with excavation work.
ITD’s scope of work involves building a combined total of 6.34 km twin tunnels, roughly 360 meter ramp at Nagawara, and four stations at Tannery Road, Venkateshpura, Kadugundanahalli (formerly Arabic College) and Nagawara.
As shared earlier – both Tunga and Bhadra will first travel 822.99m south from Venkateshpura to Tannery Road, pass through the station box and tunnel 209.585m towards the retrieval shaft. After that, they will be brought back to Venkateshpura for tunneling 1172.16m towards Kadugundanahalli and a further 916.709m to Nagawara Station’s TBM retrieval shaft.
Here’s a snap of Bhadra’s cutterhead getting lowered on Friday:
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 this development – 6 of those have been commissioned and parts of two have been or are being lowered for commissioning.
Here’s a status of each machine with figures displayed from BMRCL’s May newsletter. TBM Urja – working on the Cantonment to Shivajinagar section – has progressed by only 1.5 meters when compared to the April newsletter.
| TBM | Status |
| S-1259 | Commissioned in April 2021 (progress N/A) |
| S-1260 | Getting configured for commissioning (Parts arrived in December) |
| S-1264 | Commissioned in March 2021 (77/596m) |
| DZ669 (Avni) | Commissioned in Sept 2020 (432.6/1089m) |
| DZ670 (Urja) | Commissioned in July 2020 (429/860m) |
| DZ671 (Vindhya) | Commissioned in October 2020 (381/860m) |
| DZ672 (Lavi) | Commissioned in February 2021 (78.4/1089m) |
| S-839B (Tunga) | FAT completed Jan 27-29 (parts have arrived at Venkateshpura Station) |
| S-840B (Bhadra) | Parts are being lowered at Venkateshpura Station (this post!) |
For more updates, check out my Home Page!
– TMRG
👍
All the best
Why is this being done in 2 steps. Why not start from tannery road and go till Nagwara in one go.
Won’t the current approach waste time in retrieval and recommissioning ?
They would be commissioning other TBMs at the retrieval shaft now.
The soils in this are area are different once the tunnel towards tannery road is complete the cutter heads will changed for the stretch till nagavar
That’s interesting – wasn’t aware of this.
I imagined this 2 step method had more to do with scheduling of excavation works at different stations, depending on availability of land at sites.
Land near Nagavara was always available, there weren’t much of demolition work required except for 1 or 2 buildings. There must be some other reason.
That’s wrong information given by PRANAV. The cutter head will not be replaced for the nagawara stretch. The two drive sequence is entirely due to scheduling and planning other activities in tandem to tunneling.
Go going, it would be appropriate for going elevated route in Bangalore,,
https://themetrorailguy.com/2021/01/01/lt-wins-rishikesh-karnaprayag-rail-lines-package-4/
What is status of this
Did they start work or any tbm update
Not sure, will try to find out. At the most basic site preparation work would have started by now.
What is the deadline of Bangalore metro pink line
I think not before 2024..
BMRCL / state government hasn’t released a new one. Prior to COVID they were chasing a 2023 deadline. I don’t see this starting before mid-2024.
When is the re-tender submission date for the overground portion of the pink line? If I remember right, the tenders were called in March 2021?
For now sale end date is 7th June…hope bmrcl doesn’t postpone it further.
Is there any direct metro planned to new Sir MV railway station?
Naah, no proposal as such. Closest metro station right now and for the next 15 years will be Baiyappanahalli.
Any updates on re-tendering of Bannerghatta road line , Simplex infrastructure was terminated from project because of very poor performance ?
Current technical bid opening date is June 21
So wen are dey going to start this machine….
Can we visit this construction site, is the public allowed to see???
1) Should start in mid-July
2) Public is prohibited