L&T’s Chennai Metro TBM Siruvani Starts Tunneling from Chetpet
Following a small puja, Larsen & Toubro on Wednesday officially commissioned tunnel boring machine (TBM) DZ1040 at Chetpet Station’s shaft for constructing the 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project.
This Ø6.65m earth pressure balance (EPB) machine, nicknamed TBM Siruvani, is the 3rd of 8 machines to start tunneling works on 45.4 km Line-3‘s Package TU-02 connecting Kellys and Taramani Road Junction stations.
It will first travel from Chetpet Station southward towards Sterling Road, a distance of roughly 705 meters.
The machine was manufactured by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry (CRCHI) and passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in the summer of 2022.
It will be deployed by L&T along with 7 other TBMs to construct approximately 12 km twin tunnels (total 24 km) between Kellys and Taramani Road Junction stations.
Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) had awarded L&T with Package TU-02’s Rs. 2385 crore contract in May 2021 with a 42 month deadline.
Besides constructing twin tunnels between Kellys and Taramani Road Junction, they will build diaphragm walls, entry/exit structures of Chetpet Station, Royapettah Government Hospital Station, Thiruvanmiyu Station, and part diaphragm wall of Greenways Road Station, including launching and retrieval shafts at the above stations.
L&T had started lowering TBM Siruvani’s parts into Chetpet Station in June – see images.
Siruvani has so far built 2 temporary rings inside the shaft for its initial drive. Its back-up gantry will be lowered and attached later for the main drive.
Besides these 2 machines, L&T will deploy 4 Herrenknecht machines and 2 Robbins machines from Mumbai Metro Line-3’s Package UGC-01. With this development, 3 of those 8 machines have started tunneling works.
Here’s a status table of all machines in Package TU-02 which is best viewed on a Desktop device. If you spot discrepancies, then drop a comment below or shoot me a message via the Contact page.
| TBM (Nickname) | Status |
| Herrenknecht S1326A (Adyar) | Lowered at Greenways (will bore towards Adyar Junction) |
| Herrenknecht S1327A (Kaveri) | Launched from Greenways towards Adyar Junction |
| Herrenknecht S1238A (Noyyal) | Launched from Greenways towards Mandaveli |
| Herrenknecht S1329A (Vaigai) | Lowered at Greenways (will bore towards Mandaveli) |
| CRCHI DZ1040 (Siruvani) | Launched at Chetpet towards Sterling (this post!) |
| CRCHI DZ1041 (Palar) | Lowered at Chetpet towards Sterling |
| Robbins 408 (Bhavani) | Passed Factory Acceptance Tests (will bore from Chetpet towards KMC) |
| Robbins 409 (Thamirabharani) | Pending Factory Acceptance Tests (will bore from Chetpet towards KMC) |
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– TMRG
Considering the tender was awarded in May’21, this would mean the deadline is Nov’24. That seems extremely aggressive. Do you think they’ll be able to hit the timeline?
Most likely won’t be met. 5 machines are yet to start. The last one (Robbins 409) is scheduled to undergo FAT in October, so will start tunneling only in early 2024.
We’re still in the early stages of tunneling, let’s see what challenges Chennai’s terrain throws. In Phase 1, two machines unexpectedly got stuck and took 26 months to travel 1.3 km between High Court and Central
https://themetrorailguy.com/2016/11/02/tbm-s711-makes-a-breakthrough-at-chennai-metros-central-station/
Yeah, that makes sense. There’s almost always some curveballs that are thrown at the TBMs underground. Let’s hope they are able to navigate them swiftly.
Just curious to know on Tunnel Boring Machines ; whether China is the only manufacturer of TBM
In the world or any other country has got technology?
Any Indian Company planning to get the knowhow ?
China, Germany, USA & Japan are the countries into TBM manufacturing, but predominantly it is China & Germany.
This project alone is using TBMs from almost every TBM manufacturer, i.e. Robbins, Herrenknecht and CRHI. No Single company will be able to fulfill India’s TBM requirements currently.
Can anyone tell me whether 1 TBM has started tunnelling from Greenways Road towards Mandaveli?
In GREENWAYS 2 tbms have already started mining