Bangalore Metro’s TBM Rudra Records RT-01’s Final Breakthrough

Afcons Infrastructure this morning celebrated Tunnel Boring Machine S-1259’s final breakthrough at Langford Town Station of Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line (Nagawara – Kalena Agrahara).

Nicknamed Rudra, this Herrenknecht slurry machine arrived from Lakkasandra Station after boring and building rings for its 3rd assignment in 114 days.

This was Afcons’ final of 8 tunnel breakthroughs planned for 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project’s 3.655 km Package RT-01 connecting Rashtriya Military School Station – Dairy Circle South Ramp. Their other 2 machines – Varada and Vamika – had completed their tunneling assignments in September 2022 and August 2023, respectively.

Rudra was originally commissioned from Dairy Circle’s South Ramp in April 2021. Here’s a summary of Rudra’s completed tunneling drives:

  • South Ramp to Dairy Circle Station (613m) – November 2021
  • Dairy Circle to Lakkasandra (746m) – April 2023
  • Lakkasandra to Langford Town (718m) – October 2023 (this post!)
Photo by Afcons Infra
RT-01: Dairy Circle Ramp – National Military School- view Bangalore Metro Phase 2 Info & Map

Per a detailed banner displayed at the site, TBM Rudra:

  • Recorded 3 breakthroughs
  • Had 122 interventions
  • Was 518 days in journey
  • Erected 1485 rings
Photo by Rahul Ranjan
Photo by Rahul Ranjan

A video can be viewed here on X (Twitter).

With this development, Rudra’s job is over! It’s become the 7th of 9 machines, after VaradaAvniUrjaLavi, Vindhya & Vamika to finish all of its tunneling assignments.

Tunneling works on 3/4 packages of Phase 2 have been wrapped up with the completion of 22/26 tunnel breakthroughs: 8/8 on Package RT-01 by Afcons, 4/4 on RT-02 by L&T, 6/6 on RT-03 by L&T, and 4/8 on RT-04 by ITD Cementation.

Pink Line’s completed twin tunnels now connect all the way from South Ramp (on Afcons’ package RT-01) to Venkateshpura (on ITD’s package RT-04) – a distance of roughly 10.8 km.

Overall tunneling progress stands at 18.45 / 20.9 km. On RT-04, as of October 25 – TBM Tunga had completed tunneling 84% of 1184m while Bhadra had completed 60% of 1186m for their 3rd of 4 drives.

From ITD’s team I hear TBM Tunga, which has a balance of 148 rings left to build, will make its 3rd breakthrough at KG Halli Station somewhere around December 1. I’ll know an exact date as we approach the last week of November.

For more updates, check out the Bangalore section or my Home Page! Sign up for free instant email notifications on new posts over here. Like this post? Get early-access to updates and support the site over here.

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

11 Responses to "Bangalore Metro’s TBM Rudra Records RT-01’s Final Breakthrough"

  1. Sid says:

    What’s the estimated breakthrough date for Bhadra?

    Reply
  2. Sanjay says:

    What about station construction for underground stations?

    Reply
  3. Jishnukrishna Venkat says:

    Any idea whether CRRC rakes hv arrived B’luru ?? This month was the scheduled arrival, which is gonna get over in 2 days..

    Reply
  4. Grenville Noronha says:

    They engineers were quoted in a recent IE article last week that the UG tunneling should be complete by March 2024.
    But there are two portions for Tunga and Bhadra to complete and the status of that is 0%. The current drive of T&B is at 84% and 60%.

    Do you believe that March is possible or year-end?

    Reply
  5. Anonymous says:

    Did Tunga achieve break through as expected on 01Dec ?

    Reply

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