J Kumar’s TBM Diya Records Surat Metro Phase 1’s Final Breakthrough

J Kumar Infraprojects in February celebrated tunnel boring machine (TBM) S28B’s first and final breakthrough at Chowk Bazar Station of Surat Metro Phase 1 project’s 22.77 km Line-1 (Sarthana – Dream City).

This exciting milestone marks the final breakthrough for not just 3.56 km Package UG-02 / CS-03 (Surat Railway Station – Chowk Bazar Ramp), but also the entire Phase 1 project’s 7.02 underground section connecting Chowk Bazar – Kapodra Ramp.

Nicknamed TBM Diya, this Ø6.61m diameter Terratec earth pressure balance machine along with TBM S25B, nicknamed TBM Amrit, had previously seen action at Delhi Metro’s Phase 3 Pink Line’s Package CC-24 (Lajpat Nagar – Hazrat Nizamuddin).

TBM Diya was the first machine to get commissioned from Surat Railway Station in April 2023 towards Chowk Bazar via Maskati Hospital for a distance of roughly 2.9 km. Amrit was commissioned a month later for the parallel tunnel, passed Diya, and finished its tunneling job in August 2025.

Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) had awarded J Kumar Infraprojects with Package CS-03’s Rs. 941.80 crore contract in December 2020.

Their scope includes constructing roughly half of Line-1’s 7.02 underground section (Chowk Bazar – Kapodra Ramp) from chainage 7160.6m to chainage 10720m with 3 stations at Chowk Bazar, Maskati Hospital and Surat Railway Station.

With this development, all major tunneling activities for Phase 1 are now over with only cross-passage works pending. Gulermak – Sam JV, the contractor for 3.46 km Package CS-02 / UG-01 (Kapodra – Surat Railway Station) had completed tunneling works using Terratec machines S78 (TBM Narmada) and S94 (TBM Tapi) in September 2024.

At this time I see Surat’s underground section opening up for commercial operations no sooner than early 2028 with the quantum of pending civil, systems, architectural finishing, testing and other activities to go. This section along with elevated Package CS4 (Kapodra North Ramp to Sarthana) in eastern Surat will likely be the final leg of Phase 1 to open.

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– TMRG