Afcons Records Delhi-Meerut RAPIDX Package 8’s Final Tunnel Breakthrough

Afcons Infrastructure on Tuesday celebrated tunnel boring machine S89’s second tunnel breakthrough at Begumpul RapidX Station’s South Shaft for the 82.15 km Delhi – Meerut RRTS project.

This was Afcons Infrastructure’s final of 6 breakthroughs planned on 5.68 km underground Package 8 of this semi high-speed rail project.

This 7.51m diameter Terratec Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine nicknamed Sudarshan 8.2 had recorded its first breakthrough at Meerut Central Station in February 2023 after tunneling 1839m from Bhaisali Station.

Its parts were then retrieved from Meerut Central, transported back to Bhaisali, and re-assembled for commissioning in March 2023 to build the final approximately 1 km down-tunnel towards Begumpul Station.

National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) had awarded Afcons Infrastructure with Package 8’s Rs. 1529.10 crore contract in November 2020 with a 1310 day (3.6 year) deadline.

Afcons’ 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.

With this development, S89’s job is now done! It’s become the 6th of 7 machines, after STEC’s TBMs Sudarshan 4.1, 4.2 & 4.3 on Package 4 and Afcons’ TBMs Sudarshan 8.1 (S88) and 8.3 (S90), to complete all of its tunneling assignments.

STEC’s TBM Sudarshan 4.4 on Package 4 is now the only machine working on the entire line. It’s building the 2.093 km up-line tunnel between Anand Vihar – Sahibabad UP-Ramp, and per NCRTC’s press release from back in June it had completed building “75%” of the tunnel.

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– TMRG