Delhi-Meerut RRTS’ TBM S88 Records Breakthrough at Meerut Central

Afcons Infrastructure on Thursday celebrated tunnel boring machine S88’s first tunnel breakthrough at Meerut Central RRTS Station for the 82.15 km Delhi – Meerut RRTS project.

This 7.51m diameter Terratec Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine, nicknamed Sudarshan 8.1, was commissioned in March 2022 at Bhaisali RRTS Station. From there it travelled 1823.39 meters, for Package 8’s longest tunneling drive, towards Meerut Central Station. Along the way, it made a pit-stop at a mid-shaft located 695.85 meters south of Bhaisali Station.

Route Map of Package-8: Brahampuri Ramp – Begumpul Ramp with the indicative location of its stations – view NCR RRTS Route Map & Info

Afcons was awarded Package 8’s Rs. 1529.10 crore contract in November 2020 with a 1310 day (3.6 year) deadline. Their scope includes constructing six twin tunnels from Brahampuri DN Ramp to Begumpul UP Ramp with 3 underground stations at Meerut Central, Bhaisali & Begumpul by cut & cover method.

Pic via follower Maheep Sharma

This was S88’s first breakthrough and Afcons Infrastructure’s second breakthrough. Back in mid-October their TBM S90 (Sudharshan 8.3) recorded its first breakthrough for Package 8 at Begumpul Station after tunneling roughly 750m from Begumpul UP Ramp located at Gandhi Park.

With this development, Afcons now has 4 more breakthroughs pending. TBM S88 will now be dismantled, taken back to Bhaisali, and relaunched to build a roughly 1 km tunnel towards Begumpul.

Overall, this was the third breakthrough for the RRTS project. Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd. (STEC) working on 5.6 km Package 4 had quietly recorded the entire project’s first breakthrough in early October at a mid-shaft south of Anand Vihar RRTS Station.

That event wasn’t publicized at all by National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) for obvious reasons. With the latest clash occurring at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Tawang sector, I don’t expect any of their proper station breakthroughs to be publicized either.

For more updates, check out the RRTS section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

4 Responses to "Delhi-Meerut RRTS’ TBM S88 Records Breakthrough at Meerut Central"

  1. Gaurav says:

    Hey TMRG

    Are you going to do a post on Nagpur metro’s phase 1 launch or update the snapshot on your website? It’s the source of truth for a lot of readers like me 😊

    Reply
  2. Kartik says:

    You said you believe that mpmrcl will not have a single Alstom train for September 23 trial. A local media article claims that they will have two by July. Do you think it is possible. We also need to consider elections in MP are scheduled later next year.

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Hi – July is going to be tight. Work at Subhash Nagar Depot started a few months ago. At the most maybe they’ll get the depot’s train unloading area and test track ready to showcase one train. No more.

      Reply

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