For the first time, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has deployed an indigenously assembled tunnel boring machine for Namma Metro work. The unnamed TBM has been deployed at Rashtriya Military School station, and will burrow its way towards Langford station.
“The length of the tunnel is around 650 metres. The machine is manufactured by Herrenknecht, a German company, and assembled in Chennai. It is the first machine to be used by BMRCL which has been assembled in India. After completing one tunnel between RMS and Langford, the machine will be brought back to RMS and re-launched for the second tunnel,” said B.L. Yeshwanth Chavan, Chief PRO of BMRCL.
Under Phase II of Namma Metro project, the BMRCL is building an underground line from Dairy Circle to Nagawara (13.9 km), which is part of the 21-km line from Nagawara to Kalena Agrahara. For this, BMRCL will construct the underground line in four packages.
The BMRCL has already deployed four TBMs. One machine, Urja, commenced burrowing work in August 2020 from Cantonment station towards Shivajinagar. So far, it has covered a distance of over 328 metres. Another machine, Vindya, was launched in October last year, and has covered a distance of 279 metres.
The third machine, Avani, is digging a tunnel from Shivajinagar to Rashtriya Military School, and has covered 281 metres. Another machine ‘Lavi’ has been deployed and will start tunnelling work shortly.
“Under Phase II, a total of nine machines will carry out tunnelling work to cover a stretch of 14 km. Two machines, Tunga and Bhadra, will arrive from Chennai in a month and will be deployed between Dairy Circle and Langford,” said Mr. Chavan.
The final two machines will arrive at a later stage and will be deployed for work between Pottery Town and Nagawara.