Kanpur Metro’s 4th TBM S639B Lowered at Kanpur Central by Afcons

Afcons Infrastructure on Thursday started lowering and assembling their second tunnel boring machine (TBM), S-639B, at Kanpur Central Station for constructing 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 fourth TBM to be deployed for constructing 23.785 km Line-1‘s twin tunnels between IIT Kanpur and Naubasta.

For its first assignment, it will dig and build a roughly 1250m tunnel for the down-line from Kanpur Central metro station towards Nayaganj metro station. The shaft at Kanpur Central is 18m deep and 21m x 25m wide.

The machine had earlier been deployed in Kolkata by Afcons to build the up-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 June 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.

S639B’s sister machine, S640B, had passed FAT in June 2023 and was lowered into the same shaft in August to become Kanpur’s third TBM. I haven’t heard of it being commissioned yet.

Nicknames for both machines haven’t been publicly been announced. 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).

October 1, 2023 Update: Per Pankaj’s comment below, S640B is named Azad. Per a tunneling connection, S639B will likely be named Vidyarthi.

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– TMRG