Agra Metro Priority Corridor’s Final Breakthrough Recorded by TBM Ganga

That’s a wrap! Afcons Infrastructure – SAM India Consortium on Friday celebrated tunnel boring machine (TBM) Ganga’s breakthrough at Taj Mahal Metro Station of the 29.40 km Agra Metro Phase 1 project.

This was TBM Ganga’s 3rd breakthrough, and the project’s 8th & final breakthrough for Agra Metro’s Priority Corridor connecting Jama Masjid (Mankameshwar Mandir) – Taj East Gate. Overall, this was also the 8th breakthrough for 14.25 km Line-1’s 7.93 km Package AGCC-02 connecting RBS College Ramp – Taj Mahal Ramp.

TBM Ganga, a Ø6.52m Robbins Earth Pressure Balance machine (215-324) was the project’s 2nd of three TBMs to be commissioned in mid-April 2023.

Here’s a list of all drives completed by TBM Ganga for the up-line tunnel:

• Ramleela Maidan to Agra Fort Station (334m) – June 2023
• Agra Fort Station to Shahjahan Gardens Midshaft (~175m) – September 2023
• Shahjahan Gardens Midshaft to Taj Mahal Station (~1175m) – December 2023 (this post!)

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) had awarded Afcons – SAM Consortium with 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.

Besides TBM Ganga, Afcons deployed 2 other machines – TBM Yamuna and TBM Shivaji to build twin tunnels on the 2.8 km underground section of the Priority Corridor between Jama Majid and Taj Mahal Ramp.

UPMRC has set an ambitious deadline of February 2024 to operationalize Agra Metro’s 5.2 km Priority Corridor (Jama Masjid – Taj East Gate). Trial runs have been underway since July 2023 on the 2.4 km elevated package (constructed by Sam India Builtwell) connecting Taj Mahal Ramp – Taj East Gate.

With this development, Afcons’ tunneling team will now focus their attention towards the rest of the line between RBS College and Jama Masjid where, if my calculations are right, another 10 breakthroughs are planned.

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– TMRG