MUMBAI (Metro Rail News): Larsen & Toubro and Freight Wings on Friday transported the largest tunnel boring machine (TBM), which has been used ever in India, over to its launch site for building twin 1,920m tunnels of Mumbai’s 29.2 km Coastal Road (Western Freeway) project.
“The TBM with a diameter of 12.19m was manufactured by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. (CRCHI) and arrived in Mumbai’s Priyadarshini Park neighbourhood in April 2020″, sources said.
Larsen & Toubro will deploy the machine on the project’s 3.93 km Package-4 for constructing 12m wide twin tunnels under Malabar Hill (75m deep) and Girgaum Chowpatty (25m deep) between Priyadarshini Park and Marine Drive in South Mumbai. On Friday, Freight Wings transported the TBM’s assembled shields weighing about 1500MT using a 200 wheel self-propelled modular transporter from the assembly area to the launch ramp.
“The TBM will be lowered by Freight Wings into the shaft using a 2500MT capacity customized Strand Jack system for this project. This system is similar, but way larger, than the one deployed by them to retrieve and lower Dogus-Soma JV’s TBMs 1238 and 1239 for Mumbai Metro’s Line-3″, according to a news report.