ITD’s Chennai Metro TBM S1352A Passes Factory Tests

Tunnel boring machine manufacturer Herrenknecht on Tuesday completed factory acceptance tests (FAT) on S-1352A, their 3rd of 4 machines for 26.1 km Line-4 of the 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project.

This brand new Ø6.67m diameter Earth Pressure Balance machine is the only new machine that will be deployed by ITD Cementation for Line-4’s 10 km underground section between Power House Ramp – Light House Station. This section consists of roughly 16 kms of TBM tunnels (up & down line).

More specifically, this machine will be deployed on 5.15 km Package UG-1 (Light House – Boat Club) from Light House Station’s TBM Launch Shaft at Marina Beach.

Photo by Saleem Hussain

Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) had awarded ITD Cem with Line-4’s two underground contracts (UG-1 & UG-2) in January 2022 with a combined contract value of Rs. 3743.24 crore and 48 month deadline.

ITD in December 2022 had cast the 1st of roughly 9000 tunnel segments at their Muthukadu Casting Yard along ECR Road – view images here.

CMRL’s official Phase 2 map – view Phase 2 info & route map
Photo by Saleem Hussain

TBM S1352A will work alongside TBM S-1073B which passed FAT in January 2023.

With this development, FAT for just 1 more TBM (S-1075B) on Line-4 is now pending. That machine was earlier deployed as TBM S-1075 to build tunnels on Mumbai Metro Line-3’s Package UGC-04. In Chennai, it’ll be deployed to build twin tunnels on Package UG-02 (Kodambakkam Flyover – Boat Club) along with TBM S-1074B which passed FAT in March 2023.

For more updates, check out the Chennai 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 "ITD’s Chennai Metro TBM S1352A Passes Factory Tests"

  1. RAMANATHAN MUTHIAH says:

    What is the status report of Chennai Airport – Kilambakkam Metro 15 kms, Phase 1 Extn ⁉️👆🏿‼️ When will they start the project, CMRL is doing only Phase 2,3,4 &5 instead of Phase 1 Extn.. No work started yet 👆🏿‼️

    Reply
  2. Anand Asir A says:

    TMRG
    Please update the Google map based on revised map from CMRL. Please use the updated map fro the following link.
    https://chennaimetrorail.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Phase-II-Updated-Map.pdf

    Reply
  3. Vicky says:

    What is the status of the feasibility report for 17kms – Thirumangalam-Ambattur-Avadi line?? When will they announce it and start the construction? It was announced in initial planning work for phase 2 as Red line alongwith Purple line, but nothing has materialised and implemented. Instead red line originated from Madhavaram-Retteri.
    CMRL doesn’t listen to majority public opinions on planning of different corridors and stations. Instead they plan only with the opinions of bigshots and politicians and not common man. Removal of Thirumangalam-Avadi corridor earlier and Thapalpetti station today is an example for this.

    Reply
    • Samuel says:

      Feasibility study under final stage! After finalizing route, detailed project report will start. And they have changed the alignment starting from koyambedu-anna nagar- mogapair – Ambattur – avadi instead of thirumangalam!

      Reply

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