KPIL’s Kanpur Metro Line-2 TBM Gomati Starts Tunneling from Rawatpur

Kalpataru Projects International Ltd. (KPIL) – Gulermak JV today commissioned their first tunnel boring machine (TBM) Gomati at Rawatpur Metro Station of Kanpur Metro’s 8.38 km Line-2 which will connect Agriculture University – Barra-8.

TBM Gomati (S-1408A) is a Ø6.6m Herrenknecht Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine and the fifth TBM to get deployed for constructing underground twin tunnels of the 32.385 km Kanpur Metro Phase 1 project.

It’s the first of two machines for constructing Line-2’s 4.08 km underground Package KNPCC-11 between Agriculture Depot and Double Pullia Ramp which consists of 3 underground stations at Rawatpur, Kakadeo and Double Pullia.

For its first assignment, TBM Gomati will dig a 622m tunnel and build 444 tunnel rings for the up-line from Rawatpur Station towards the ramp at Agriculture University. It will then be brought back to Rawatpur Station and get relaunched southward towards Kakadeo Station for a 772m drive and onward to Double Pullia Station for another 1005m drive.

TBM manufacturer Herrenknecht Company had completed factory acceptance tests (FAT) on TBM S-1408A in Guangzhou, China in June 2024.

KPIL – Gulermak JV in August 2024 started casting tunnel ring segments which S-1408A and S-1409A will erect as tunneling advances. From back of the hand calculations, I estimate their yard will churn out at least 3600 tunnel rings to build this section’s tunnels which will have an inner diameter of 5.8 meters.

In September-end, KPIL – Gulermak JV began lowering parts of TBM Gomati into Rawatpur Station’s northern shaft.

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) had awarded underground Package KNPCC-11’s Rs. 762.50 crore contract to KPIL – Gulermak JV in December 2023 with a 30 month deadline. The consortium officially started construction work at Rawatpur Station in April 2024.

KNPCC-11 is the third underground package of the 32.38 km Kanpur Metro Phase 1 project after Line-1’s KNPCC-05 (Chunniganj – Nayaganj) and KNPCC-06 (Nayaganj – Transport Nagar).

I hear KPIL – Gulermak JV’s 2nd TBM (S-1409A) for building the parallel down-line tunnel has been named TBM Saraswati. Its part are expected to arrive in Kanpur from China in mid-December.

As shared at the top of my post, TBM Gomati is Kanpur Metro Phase 1 project’s fifth TBM to get going. Contractors on Line-1’s two packages each deployed two machines:

• Package KNPCC-05 (Chunniganj – Nayaganj): TBM Tatya (S92) and TBM Nana (S93) – Tunneling completed by Gulermak – Sam India JV
• Package KNPCC-06 (Nayaganj – Transport Nagar): TBM Vidyarthi (S-639B) and TBM Azad (S-640B) – Tunneling underway by Afcons Infrastructure

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– TMRG