‘Avani’ begins tunnelling from Shivajinagar station

BENGALURU: Nearly four weeks after the first tunnel boring machine – Urja — started drilling from Cantonment Metro Station to Shivajinagar Metro Station, the second machine, Avani, got on the job on Friday.  

According to a senior Metro official, Avani began tunnelling at 4 pm from Shivajinagar to the MG Road station, a distance of 1,100 metres. Four TBMs, imported from China, are being deployed to create the Underground Corridor of the Nagawara-Gottigere Line (Reach-6) of Namma Metro’s Phase-II.

The 13.9-km corridor runs from South Ramp near Jayanagar fire station to North Ramp near Nagawara Underground Metro Station with 12 underground stations. Two tunnels are set to be created with each running to 10.37 km.

The third TBM – Lavi -- will start work in October in the same direction. Lavi and Urja will both reach Vellara junction. Urja has so far completed drilling around 20 metres with the first ring made on hard rock recently. The fourth TBM — Vindhya — will also tunnel from Cantonment to Shivajinagar.

Additional five TBMs will be bought to complete  the corridor. The 12 UG stations of Reach-6 are Diary Circle, Lakkasandra, Langford, Vellara, MG Road, Shivajinagar, Cantonment, Pottery Town, Tannery Road, Venkateshpura, Arabic College and Nagawara.