L&T’s Patna Metro TBM-3 Records Breakthrough at Patna Junction

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Tuesday celebrated their third tunnel breakthrough at Patna Junction Station for 30.91 km Patna Metro Phase 1 project’s 8 km underground Package PC-03 connecting Rajendra Nagar – Patna Junction Railway Station.

This major milestone on Patna Metro’s 14.05 km Line-2 (Patna Junction Railway Station – New ISBT) was recorded by TBM-3 – a 6.65m diameter EPB machine manufactured by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. (CRCHI). It remains unconfirmed to me, but this machine likely has a serial number of DZ1169.

TBM-3 was commissioned from Gandhi Maidan Station’s west-end on November 21 2023, passed through Akashvani Station’s site where it recorded a hidden breakthrough, and arrived at Patna Station’s northern shaft on Tuesday – covering a distance of roughly 1.7 km in 476 days.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had awarded L&T with Patna Metro Phase 1 Package PC-03’s Rs. 1989 crore contract in December 2021 with a 42 month deadline.

PC-03 will connect a ramp near Rajendra Nagar with Patna Junction Railway Station through TBM bored twin tunnels and 6 underground stations at Akashvani (formerly Dak Bungalow), Gandhi Maidan, PMCH, Patna University, Moin Ul Haq Stadium and Rajendra Nagar.

A short video of the breakthrough can be viewed here on X.

L&T’s TBM-4 (likely with a serial number of DZ1170) working on the parallel tunnel is expected to arrive at Patna Junction in April-end.

With this development, 3 tunnel breakthroughs for Package PC-03 have been recorded. TBM-1 (DZ1090) and TBM-2 (DZ1091) had completed building the 1494m Moin Ul Haq – University twin tunnels in mid-2024, and are currently building 2302m tunnels from University towards PMCH and onward to Gandhi Maidan.

That said, I reckon TBM-3 and eventually TBM-4 will be dismantled and relaunched to build the final pair of tunnels between Moin Ul Haq Stadium – Rajendra Nagar.

Meanwhile, technical evaluation is still underway since October 2024 for 16.86 km Line-1‘s 8 km underground section connecting Rukanpura Ramp and Mithapur Ramp. DMRC had received 5 bids for its Packages PC-05 & PC-06 – see details.

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– TMRG