Afcons Lowers Kanpur Metro’s TBM S640B at Kanpur Central

Afcons Infrastructure on Friday started lowering and assembling their first tunnel boring machine (TBM) S-640B at Kanpur Central Station for constructing underground tunnels on Kanpur Metro’s Package KNPCC-06 between Nayaganj Station – Transport Nagar Ramp.

This Herrenknecht Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine is Kanpur Metro Phase 1’s third TBM to be deployed for constructing 23.785 km Line-1 between IIT Kanpur and Naubasta.

For its first assignment, it will dig and build a roughly 1250m tunnel from Kanpur Central metro station towards Nayaganj metro station.

The machine had earlier been deployed in Kolkata by Afcons to build the down-line tunnel of Kolkata Metro’s 16.34 km Line-2 between Howrah Maidan – Esplanade. Along the way, it passed under the Hooghly River in June 2017.

It was then refurbished at Afcons’ yard in Butibori on the outskirts of Nagpur where it passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in May 2023.

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) had awarded Afcons – SAM JV with 4.65 km KNPCC-06’s contract in March 2022 with a 36 month deadline and value of Rs. 1087.67 crore (INR 1062,02,00,000 + EURO 29,00,000).

This section connects Nayaganj Station and Transport Nagar Ramp via 3 underground stations at Kanpur Central, Jhakarkatti and Transport Nagar.

I expect the machine to be commissioned towards Nayaganj by mid-September. I haven’t yet heard of a nickname being assigned to it. The first two machines deployed by Gulermak – Sam India JV on Package KNPCC-05 (Permat Ramp – Nayaganj) have been named TBM Tatya (S92) and TBM Nana (S93).

S640B’s sister machine, S639B, had passed FAT in June, and I expect its parts to be lowered in September for tunneling and building the parallel tunnel.

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– TMRG