Agra Metro’s TBM S-718C Records Final Breakthrough at Agra College

Afcons Infrastructure – Sam India Consortium on Wednesday morning celebrated tunnel boring machine (TBM) S-718’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 S-718C’s fifth breakthrough and overall the 16th breakthrough for 7.93 km Package AGCC-02 connecting RBS Ramp – Taj Mahal Ramp.

S-718C is a Ø6.63m diameter Herrenknecht earth pressure balance (EPB) machine. Prior to this, it built both 228m twin tunnels between Taj Mahal Station and Taj Mahal Ramp on Fatehabad Road. Its then built a 734m tunnel for the down-line from RBS Ramp to RBS College Station, and built another 685m tunnel from RBC College to Raja Ki Mandi Station.

For its 5th and final assignment, the machine was dragged through Raja Ki Mandi Station and relaunched in November 2024 to build a roughly 535m tunnel to Agra College Interchange Station where it arrived just a few hours after 2025 began.

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, Mankameshwar (Jama Masjid), SN Medical College, Agra College, Raja Ki Mandi and RBS College.

S-718C’s job is now over in Agra and its future remains unknown to me. It’s become the 2nd of 4 machines – after Terratec S115 in December 2024 – to complete all its drives.

With 16 breakthroughs squared away, there are now 2 more breakthroughs left in Agra Metro’s Phase 1 project – both at Mankameshwar (formerly Jama Masjid) by TBMs 215 & 324. I see both milestones being recorded before Q1 ends.

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– TMRG