Agra Metro’s TBM S115 Records Final Breakthrough at Agra College

Afcons Infrastructure – Sam India Consortium in November celebrated tunnel boring machine (TBM) S115’s final breakthrough at Agra College Station for Agra Metro Phase 1 project‘s 14.25 km Line-1 (Sikandra – Taj East Gate).

This was S115’s third breakthrough and the seventh breakthrough for the remaining portion of Agra Metro Line-1’s underground section, outside of the operational Priority Corridor, between RBS Ramp and Mankameshwar Mandir Station. Overall, this was the 15th breakthrough for 7.93 km Package AGCC-02 connecting RBS Ramp – Taj Mahal Ramp.

S115 is a refurbished Terratec Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine and Afcons’ fourth TBM. It was commissioned in December 2023 to build a 2.2 km tunnel for the up-line from RBS College Ramp towards Agra College Interchange Station.

It first built a 720m tunnel for the up-line from RBS Ramp to RBS College Station (Dec 2023 – April 2024), was then dragged through RBS College’s station box, and then built a 684m tunnel towards Raja Ki Mandi Station (May 2024 – August 2024).

For its final assignment it was dragged through Raja Ki Mandi Station and relaunched in September to build a roughly 535m tunnel to Agra College Interchange Station where it arrived on the night of November 11.

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) had awarded Afcons – Sam India Consortium with underground Package AGCC-02’s Rs. 1819.79 crore civil construction contract in March 2022 with a 48 month deadline.

Their section from chainage 3630.000 to 11564.485 consists of twin tunnels connecting 7 stations at Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Jama Masjid, SN Medical College, Agra College, Raja Ki Mandi and RBS College.

TBM S115 has an interesting history. It’s one of Afcons’ three machines (S88, S89 or S90) which was used to build 6 tunnels on 82 km Delhi – Meerut RRTS project’s Package 8 within Meerut city.

The machine with an original cutterhead diameter of 7.51m was downsized and reconfigured to meet Agra Metro’s tunnel requirements. A new cutterhead was attached which I believe has a diameter of around 6.52 meters.

S115’s job is now over in Agra and its future remains unknown to me.

With 15 breakthroughs squared away, there are now 3 more breakthroughs left in Agra Metro’s Phase 1 project: 1 at Agra College by TBMs S-718C, and 2 at Mankameshwar (formerly Jama Masjid) by TBMs 215 & 324. I expect the final one to be recorded around the end of Q1 2025.

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– TMRG