J Kumar’s TBMs Record Breakthroughs for Delhi Metro Golden Line

J Kumar Infraprojects (JKIL) in the past fortnight celebrated two tunnel breakthroughs for Delhi Metro’s 23.622 km Golden Line (Line-10) which will connect Aerocity – Tughalakabad via 15 stations.

Both breakthroughs were recorded on 65.1 km Delhi Metro Phase 4 project‘s 6.116 km Package DC-08 have led to the completion of roughly 1600m twin tunnels connecting Vasant Kunj Station and Mahipalpur Station.

These events were recorded by Terratec’s Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine Narayani in July and by a refurbished machine, previously deployed to build 40.35 km Surat Metro Phase 1 project’s tunnels, this past week.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had awarded J Kumar with Phase 4’s Rs. 1611.74 crore contract for Package DC-08 in March 2022 with a 42 month deadline.

J Kumar’s 6.116 km Aerocity – Kishangarh section is on the western-end of the Golden Line and comprises of twin tunnels, and 4 stations at Aerocity, Mahipalpur, Vasant Kunj & Kishangarh from chainage (-) 760 mt. to 5356.285 mt.

Per Terratec’s press release, the drive from Vasant Kunj to Mahipalpur “presented some of the most demanding ground conditions on the entire Phase-IV programme. The alignment runs through extremely hard rock, with uniaxial compressive strengths exceeding 200 MPa in places — conditions more typically associated with hard-rock mining than urban metro tunnelling, as the abrasive, scored rock face in the accompanying image illustrates.

“Narayani’s” robust mixed-face cutterhead and hard-rock cutting tools were configured specifically to hold progress through this challenging geology, and bringing the drive safely to hole-through stands as a testament to the robustness of TERRATEC’s TBM design and the persistence of the project team.“

J Kumar has deployed a total of four Terratec TBMs on Package DC-08 between Aerocity – Kishangarh. The other two are Sonakshi and Shalini which previously built 1550m long tunnels from Kishangarh Station to Vasant Kunj Station between 2023-2025.

With this development, JKIL has completed building 6 of 8 tunnels between the Airport TBM Shaft (west of Aerocity Station) and Kishangarh Station which connects to Larsen & Toubro’s Package DC-07 (Kishangarh – Saket G-Block). The only two tunnels pending completion are between Aerocity and Mahipalpur, and at this time I see the Golden Line’s western section opening up no sooner than 2029.

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– TMRG