Afcons-SAM’s Agra Metro TBM Shivaji Lowered at Taj Mahal Station

Afcons Infrastructure – SAM India JV last week started lowering and assembling parts of their third tunnel boring machine, S-718C, at Taj Mahal Station of the 29.40 km Agra Metro Phase 1 project.

This refurbished Ø6.63m diameter Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine will be deployed by Afcons – Sam JV to build twin tunnels on 14.25 km Line-1’s 7.93 km RBS College Ramp – Taj Mahal Ramp section (Package AGCC-02).

More specifically, it will first be deployed to construct an approximately 235m tunnel from Taj Mahal Station’s east-end at Purani Mandi Chauraha towards the ramp on Fatehabad Road connecting to Sam India’s Package AGCC-01 where trial runs are underway.

TBM S-718 had previously been deployed by Afcons–Transtonnelstroy JV between 2013-2016 to work on Chennai Metro Phase 1 project’s packages UAA-05 and UAA-01. Following its final breakthrough it was taken to Herrenknecht’s plant in Tamil Nadu’s Thiruvallur District for refurbishment where it passed Factory Acceptance Tests (FAT) in mid-April 2023.

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) had awarded Afcons – SAM Consortium with this section’s Rs. 1819.79 crore civil construction contract in March 2022 with a 48 month deadline.

Their section from chainage 3630.000 to 11564.485 consists of twin tunnels connecting 7 stations at Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Jama Masjid, SN Medical College, Agra College, Raja ki Mandi and RBS College.

As mentioned above this will be Agra Metro’s third machine to get going. Last weekend, Robbins TBM 215-323 (Yamuna) arrived at a midshaft located east of Agra Fort Station en route to Taj Mahal Station to record the project’s 3rd breakthrough.

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– TMRG