Kanpur Metro’s TBM Vidyarthi Records Breakthrough at Nayaganj Station

Afcons – Sam India Consortium on Wednesday celebrated TBM Vidyarthi’s first tunnel breakthrough at Nayaganj Station for Kanpur Metro’s underground package KNPCC-06 connecting Nayaganj Station – Transport Nagar Ramp.

TBM Vidyarthi (S-639B) is a Herrenknecht Earth Pressure Balance machine and in December 2023 became Kanpur Metro Phase 1 project’s fourth TBM to be commissioned for constructing twin tunnels on 23.78 km Line-1 between IIT Kanpur and Naubasta.

The machine had previously been deployed by Afcons Infrastructure to build Kolkata Metro’s 16.34 km Line-2 where it passed under the Hooghly River in June 2017. That section was inaugurated in March 2024 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For its first assignment in Kanpur which ended on Wednesday, TBM Vidyarthi built a roughly 1250m long underground tunnel for the down-line from Kanpur Central Station towards Nayaganj Station.

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.

A cool video posted by UPMRC can be viewed here.

This was package KNPCC-06’s second breakthrough after the first one at Nayaganj Station in March 2024 by TBM Azad (S-640B) working on the parallel up-line tunnel.

Overall, this was the 8th breakthrough for Kanpur Metro’s Phase 1 project. The final tunnel breakthrough on Kanpur Metro’s Package KNPCC-05 (MacRobertganj Ramp – Nayaganj) was recorded in March 2024 by Gulermak – Sam India Builtwell JV.

With TBM Vidyarthi’s breakthrough, Kanpur Metro’s tunnels have now been built all the way from MacRobertganj Ramp to Kanpur Central Station.

I hear both Azad and Vidyarthi will now be dismantled and taken to Transport Nagar Ramp from where they will build short tunnels to Transport Nagar Station, dragged through its station box, build tunnels to Jhakarkatti Staton, dragged through its station box, build the final set of twin tunnels and arrive at Kanpur Central Station.

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– TMRG