Bangalore Metro’s TBM Varada Restarts Tunneling to Langford Town
Tunnel Boring Machine S-1264 operated by Afcons Infrastructure on Thursday was recommissioned at Rashtriya Military School Station for building the down-line tunnel of Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line (Nagawara – Kalena Agrahara).
Nicknamed Varada, this is TBM S-1264’s second and final drive for the 3.655 km Package RT-01 (Rashtriya Military School Station – Dairy Circle Ramp) of the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project.
This refurbished Herrenknecht earth pressure balance (EPB) machine was originally commissioned in March 2021 from Rashtriya Military School Station (near Vellara Junction) to build the 596 m up-line tunnel towards Langford Town where it recorded a breakthrough in November 2021. The machine’s parts were then brought back to RMS Station to build the parallel down-line tunnel.
Per the tunneling plan, Afcons hopes to complete tunneling on this section in 235 days.
Last week TBM Vamika arrived in the middle of Dairy Circle Station after recording a hidden breakthrough at the station box’s southern-end earlier in the month. Here’s a snap of Vamika (S-1260) and TBM Rudra (S-1259) which is undergoing minor refurbishment at the moment.
In the coming months, both will be recommissioned one after the other towards Lakkasandra Station to build 747.338 meter tunnels which Afcons hopes to complete within 243 days.
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– TMRG
So we can expect many breakthrough this year on this line. However the work on the elevated section is very slow.
The work on this Pink line is in full swing. Looks like the new contractor JR Infra is taking things seriously after simplex failed and delayed this by over 2 years. The pillars and connections have been completed from Hulimavu arch to before Rainbow hospital. The portion in front of Vega Mall is now being built. However there are still some portions where digging has still not started upto Dairy circle, Eg. Opp mosque, jayadeva hospital etc. I don’t see this line starting anytime before 2026.