Mumbai Metro’s TBM Tansa-1 Records Breakthrough at Mahalaxmi

Tunnel Boring Machine 1238 operated by Doğuş-Soma JV on Thursday evening arrived at Mahalaxmi Station on Mumbai Metro’s upcoming 33.5 km Line-3 (Aqua Line).

Nicknamed Tansa-1, this was TBM 1238’s 2nd (and penultimate) breakthrough, and Doğuş-Soma JV’s 4th of 6 breakthoughs planned for package UGC-03 (Worli – Mumbai Central). Overall, this was Line-3’s 40th of 42 planned TBM breakthroughs and tunneling progress now stands at 97% completion.

This Ø6.65m Robbins slurry machine had previously achieved a breakthrough at Worli Station in January 2020 and was then transported back to Science Museum Station through the city’s streets in March.

For its most recent assignment, it was recommissioned in September 2020 for its second drive to build the 1136m down-line tunnel towards Mahalaxmi Station.

Video by MMRC:

Line-3 has just 2 TBMs (Tansa-1 and Tansa-2) working from an all time high of 17. A total of 40 breakthroughs have been recorded so far with 2 more pending – all on Package UGC-03.

Here’s a table displaying UGC-03’s tunneling plan and status of each tunnel (best viewed on a desktop device). Note that TBM 1238 (Tansa-1) and 1239 (Tansa-2) had switched positions (up-line to down-line and down-line to up-line) for their 2nd assignment.

TBM	Line	From	To	Distance	Status
1	Up	Science Museum	Worli	2072m	Completed Jan 2020
1	Down	Science Museum	Mahalaxmi	1136m	Completed August 2021 (this post!)
1	Down	Mahalaxmi	Mumbai Central	830m	Pending Start
2	Down	Science Museum	Worli	2057m	Completed March 2020
2	Up	Science Museum	Mahalaxmi	1118m	Completed July 2021
2	Up	Mahalaxmi	Mumbai Central	837m	Pending Start

From here on, both Tansa-1 and Tansa-2 will now be dragged across Mahalaxmi Station’s platform level and recommissioned towards Mumbai Central for their final 830m and 837m assignments. I’m expecting both to be recommissioned in September. Stay tuned…

For more updates, check out the Mumbai Metro section or my Home Page!

– TMRG