AHMEDABAD (Metro Rail News): The GMRC (Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation) on Friday completed the tunnel-boring work and two machines finally surfaced at the Shahpur end of the 6.5km tunnel from Shahpur to Apparel Park.
When the three-year toil of the two tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) ended, workers chanted celebratory slogans and waved the tricolour.
In February 2019, two TBMs had emerged near the Kalupur station. Eighteen months later, the other two pushed themselves out in Shahpur near the riverfront. A ceremony was held at the Kalupurmetre gauge railway station at which the GMRC announced the completion of the tunnel. The Apparel Park to Shahpur stretch has four stations: Kankaria East, Kalupur, Gheekanta, and Shahpur.
Amit Gupta, the chief general manager of the GMRC was stated saying, “the tunnelling work was completed in three years and four TBMs were deployed. In all, 52,000 cubic metres of concrete was used for the construction of the tunnel”.
GMRC officials said that tenders were issued for the project in March 2017, and the first machine was lowered in April 2018. The second was pressed into service in June 2018.
Officials said that the second machine completed the work in time as it had data collected by the first machine, which was moving 100 metres ahead. An official said that along the entire project stretch, four incidents were reported — foam had gushed into some houses and a portion of a building had collapsed in Maninagar.
The officials said that the work to install signalling systems, tracks, and power lines will take about 18 months.
