Delhi Metro Silver Line’s 1st Tunnel Boring Machine Starts Tunneling

Larsen & Toubro on Friday commissioned TBM DZ1122 – the first tunnel boring machine of Delhi Metro’s 23.622 km Silver Line (Line-10) at Chhatarpur Station’s TBM launch shaft towards Kishangarh Station.

This mostly underground line of Delhi Metro’s Phase 4 project will connect Aerocity – Tughalakabad through 16 stations and is under construction in 4 civil packages (3 underground & 1 elevated).

L&T and Freight Wing’s teams had last week lowered this CRCHI earth pressure balance (EPB) machine’s cutterhead and shields as one-unit – in the interest of time – using a strand jack “mega lift” system.

The machine will first bore a 1.27 km long tunnel from Chhatarpur towards Kishangarh Station for the line’s 6.51 km Package DC-09 connecting Kishangarh – Saket G Block.

L&T was awarded 65.1 km Delhi Metro Phase 4 project’s Package DC-09’s contract in March 2022 valued at Rs. 1428 crore with a 42 month deadline.

Their 6.51 km section, with twin-tunnels smack-dab in the middle of the Silver Line, will connect Kishangarh Station (chainage 5356.285) with a cut and cover ramp (chainage 11867.000) west of Saket G Block Station. It includes 4 stations at Chhattarpur (interchange with Yellow Line), Chhattarpur Mandir, IGNOU and Neb Sarai.

DC-09’s design details such as crossover and ramp locations can be viewed here.

A video of the DZ1122’s cutterhead spinning can be viewed here on DMRC’s Twitter handle.

Besides DZ1122, Larsen & Toubro will be deploying another 3 CRCHI machines. Their serial numbers and tunneling assignments remain unknown to me at this time. If someone reading this is aware, then leave a comment below or shoot me a message via the Contact page.

With this development, DZ1122 has become the 1st of 11 TBMs to start tunneling work for the city’s Silver Line. Overall, it’s the 2nd machine in Phase 4 to start tunneling for building approximately 27 km twin tunnels. Back in November 2022, HCC-VCCL JV’s TBM S86 had wrapped up Magenta Line DC-06’s tunneling work between Vikaspuri Park Shaft – Krishna Park Extension.

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

– TMRG