Bangalore Metro’s TBM Urja Records Breakthrough at Shadi Mahal

Larsen & Toubro’s Tunnel Boring Machine Urja (DZ670) on Tuesday evening recorded its third breakthrough at Shadi Mahal TBM Retrieval Shaft on Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line (Reach 6).

This was TBM Urja’s final breakthrough and L&T’s 5th of 6 tunnel breakthroughs planned for the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project’s Package RT-03. This 2.884 km section’s twin tunnels between Shivajinagar – Tannery Road were awarded for construction by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) in February 2019.

After its second breakthrough at Pottery Town Station in June 2022, this Ø6.67m CRCHI slurry machine was commissioned for its final drive in July to build the 688.5 meter northbound tunnel towards Shadi Mahal.

L&T’s official tunneling estimate at the start of the drive was 170 days (completion on February 1, 2023) which was easily beaten.

Celebrations were muted and BMRCL didn’t even put out a press release due to a fatal rebar-related construction accident for the 56 km Blue Line at HBR Layout earlier in the day.

Urja’s job is now complete! It was the first of 9 machines to be commissioned for Phase 2 in July 2020 when it started its first drive of 860m from Cantonment Station to Shivajinagar. From here on, it might be taken to Delhi to build Phase 4’s tunnels for the Silver Line’s Package DC-09 which I wrote about yesterday.

Its sister machine TBM Vindhya (DZ671), which arrived at Pottery Town in August, had started its third & final drive towards Shadi Mahal Shaft in September 2022 and is expected to finish its assignment in March.

BMRCL’s recent December newsletter indicates approximately 65.65% of tunneling work had been completed for Phase 2 (total scope: 21,041m) by November-end. With this development, a total of 17 out of 26 tunnel breakthroughs have recorded: 5 on Package RT-01 by Afcons, 3 on RT-02 by L&T, 5 on RT-03 by L&T, and 4 on RT-04 by ITD Cementation.

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– TMRG