L&T Begins Kolkata Metro Line-3’s Underground Work at Victoria
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) this weekend officially started preliminary construction activities to construct Kolkata Metro Line-3 (Purple Line)’s 5.05 km underground package UG1 between Mominpur – Esplanade.
This northern and final section of 15.215 km Line-3 (Joka to Esplanade / BBD Bagh) will consist of twin tunnels running through 4 underground stations at Kidderpore, Victoria Memorial, Park Street and Esplanade. At Esplanade, it will form the city’s first 3 line interchange with Blue Line (Dakshineswar – Kavi Subhash) and 16.34 km Green Line (Howrah Maidan – Sector V).
L&T’s crew on Saturday began barricading work near Maidan’s fountain on Indira Gandhi Sarani for the 325m long Victoria Memorial Station.
L&T was awarded Package UG1’s Rs. 2447 crore civil construction contract by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) after being declared as its lowest bidder in June 2023, narrowly beating ITD Cementation India.
Out of 5.05 km (chainage 9063.00m to 14113.00m), roughly 500 meters on the line’s northern-end between Esplanade and Park Street will be built using the cut and cover method.
L&T will be required to deploy two new tunnel boring machines (TBMs) with one TBM on stand-by. I hear from my tunneling industry sources that either Herrenknecht or Japan’s IHI will supply those machines.
I see tunneling work starting no sooner than Q2 2025 and this underground section opening up for commercial operations no sooner than 2029 due to tendering delays, which are now behind us. Due to that delay, Line-3’s 6.49 km Joka – Taratala elevated section (soon to be extended to Majerhat) will function as a stand-alone line for at least 7 years disconnected from the rest of the Kolkata Metro network.
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– TMRG
Where will drilling start from?
I don’t have L&T’s tunneling plan – but most likely they’ll first start from Victoria to Park Street and then take care of the congested southern section where it’ll take a longer to get shafts ready.
Why do you think the tunneling will begin in 2025 ? As of from sources this line got 5x budget from last year .. and L&T sets 48 month deadline .
Launch shaft will take ~12 months to get ready. TBMs will take 12-18 months to get manufactured / refurbished, undergo factory acceptance tests, get disassembled, shipped, lowered, get re-assembled, and undergo site acceptance tests.
Dhiraj kumar Varma
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L&T always complete it’s work before Time.
We have deployed Durasteel systems at Kolkata metro-Howrah Maidan, Howrah, Mahakaran, Esplande, Sealdah and Phoolbagan metro stations. Some of the system applications were demountable barriers, hatches, doors and extension to OTE ducts. We can also deploy the same at the UG stations of metro line 03 under L&T. Please connect for any such requirements.