Trial Runs Begin on Agra Metro’s Underground Section

What a day! With the final tunnel breakthrough recorded on the up-line tunnel earlier in the morning, Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) on Friday night began trial runs (train testing) through the down-line tunnel of 14.25 km Agra Metro Line-1’s underground section.

This milestone of Agra Metro’s Phase 1 project comes just two and a half months after Robbins TBM Yamuna recorded its final tunnel breakthrough at Taj Mahal Station for the down-line of Agra Metro’s Priority Corridor connecting Jama Masjid (Mankameshwar Mandir) – Taj East Gate.

On Friday night, UPMRC’s team manually operated one of their Alstom MOVIA train-sets at a low-speed out of PAC Depot, down the Taj Mahal Ramp on Fatehabad Road, and inside the down-line tunnel to Taj Mahal Station and onwards to Agra Fort Station.

As always, the sole objective of the first run was to check for Schedule of Dimensions (SOD) clearances and observe the train’s interaction with the civil structure to ensure there are no physical obstructions along the way.

If you look closely in the image below, they’ve taped styrofoam blocks onto the train’s bodyshell to prevent damage.

This section of Agra Metro’s Package AGCC-02 was built by Afcons Infrastructure – Sam India Consortium through a Rs. 1819.79 crore civil construction contract awarded in March 2022 with a 48 month deadline.

The consortium had deployed TBM Yamuna and TBM Shivaji to build its down-line tunnel from Jama Masjid Station’s site at Ram Leela Maidan to Taj Mahal Ramp on Fatehabad Road.

UPMRC has set an ambitious deadline of February 2024 to operationalize Agra Metro’s 5.2 km Priority Corridor (Jama Masjid – Taj East Gate). A cool drone fly-through posted by UPMRC on Friday can be viewed here showing hectic activity inside the underground section.

Trial runs have been underway since July 2023 on the line’s 2.4 km elevated package AGCC-01, constructed by Sam India Builtwell, which connects Taj Mahal Ramp – Taj East Gate via 3 elevated stations at Fatehabad Road, Basai and Taj East Gate.

In the coming weeks, various subsystems like the signaling system, also provided by Alstom, will be tested. The train’s response to being operated at different speeds & braking will be monitored along with the behavior of the track system (Package KNPAGT-3) and Third Rail system (Package AGE-1 & 2) installed by Larsen & Toubro.

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– TMRG