Kanpur Metro’s TBM Vidyarthi Records Breakthrough at Transport Nagar Station

Afcons – Sam India Consortium on Wednesday evening celebrated Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Vidyarthi’s second breakthrough at Transport Nagar Station on 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 January 2024 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.

For its first assignment in Kanpur which ended in June 2024, TBM Vidyarthi built a roughly 1250m long underground tunnel for the down-line from Kanpur Central Station towards Nayaganj Station.

For its second & latest assignment, Vidyarthi built a roughly 331m tunnel from the ramp area at Swadesh Cotton Mills to Transport Nagar Station. The machine was commissioned in mid-August and took roughly 86 days to cover its journey which included a brief 10 day long pause to attach its back-up gantry for the main drive.

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.

TBM Azad (S-640B) working on parallel up-line had arrived at Transport Nagar Station a month ago in mid-October. Its backup gantry can be seen in the above snap.

Both machines will now be dragged through Transport Nagar’s station box, build tunnels to Jhakarkatti Staton, dragged through its station box, and build the final set of twin tunnels to Kanpur Central Station.

With this development, Afcons – Sam India has now recorded 4 out of 8 breakthroughs. The first two were at Nayaganj Station in March and June 2024. Unless major tunneling issues are encountered, at this time I reckon we’re roughly 9 months away from seeing the 8th and final tunnel breakthrough being recorded at Kanpur Central.

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– TMRG