Kanpur Metro’s TBM Azad Records Breakthrough at Nayaganj Station

It’s been a week of breakthroughs! After TBM Narmada in Surat, TBM Azad deployed by Afcons – Sam India Consortium today recorded its first tunnel breakthrough at Nayaganj Station for Kanpur Metro’s underground package KNPCC-06 (Nayaganj Station – Transport Nagar Ramp).

TBM Azad (S-640B) is a Herrenknecht Earth Pressure Balance machine and in October 2023 became Kanpur Metro Phase 1 project’s third TBM to be commissioned for constructing twin tunnels on 23.78 km Line-1 between IIT Kanpur and Naubasta.

The machine had previously been deployed by Afcons Infrastructure to build Kolkata Metro’s 16.34 km Line-2 where it passed under the Hooghly River in June 2017. That section was inaugurated earlier this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

For its first assignment in Kanpur which ended today, TBM Azad built a roughly 1250m long underground tunnel for the up-line from Kanpur Central Station towards Nayaganj Station.

Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) had awarded Afcons – SAM JV with 4.65 km KNPCC-06’s contract in March 2022 with a 36 month deadline and value of Rs. 1087.67 crore (INR 1062,02,00,000 + EURO 29,00,000).

This section connects Nayaganj Station and Transport Nagar Ramp via 3 underground stations at Kanpur Central, Jhakarkatti and Transport Nagar.

Overall, this was the 7th breakthrough for Kanpur Metro’s Phase 1 project. Earlier this month, Gulermak – Sam India Builtwell JV’s TBM Tatya (S92) recorded Package KNPCC-05’s sixth and final breakthrough for Line-1’s MacRobertganj Ramp – Nayaganj section.

Afcons’ tunneling plan for KNPCC-06 is unknown to me, so it remains to be seen if Azad machine will be taken back to Kanpur Central or Jhakarkatti for its next assignment.

Afcons had commissioned S-639 (TBM Vidyarthi), their 2nd and Kanpur’s 4th machine, in December 2023 to build the parallel down-line tunnel and I hear it’s on-track for a late-April / early-May breakthrough. Stay tuned!

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– TMRG