BANGALORE (Metro Rail News): Afcons Infrastructure’s Tunnel Boring Machine S-1260 made a tunnel breakthrough on 12th December at Lakkasandra Station for the 21.386 km Pink Line (Nagawara – Kalena Agrahara) of the Bangalore Metro.
TBM S-1260, also known as Vamika. This was its second tunnel breakthrough for the southbound tunnel of the 3.655 km Package RT-01 between Rashtriya Military School Station and Dairy Circle South Ramp of the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project.
The Herrenknecht earth pressure balance (EPB) machine was commissioned from the South Ramp in June 2021 and travelled 614 metres to Dairy Circle Station in January 2022 to record a “hidden breakthrough.”
After passing through the box of Dairy Circle Station, the machine continued to travel a distance of 747.338 metres to reach Lakkasandra Station.
According to the tunnelling plan, Afcons expected to finish tunnelling on this segment in 243 days; however, they did so in 232 days.
TBM Rudra (S-1259) is working on the same northbound tunnel route, which remains stranded in a garbage dump once a granite quarry.
There is only one more project left for TBM Vamika, a 714.51-meter tunnel towards Langford Town Station that Afcons aims to finish in 157 days.
The most recent BMRCL November newsletter indicates that Phase 2’s tunnelling work (total scope: 21,041m) was about 62.39% finished by October.
A total of 15 out of 26 breakthroughs have been recorded: 5 on Package RT-01 by Afcons, 3 on RT-02 by L&T, 4 on RT-03 by L&T, and 3 on RT-04 by ITD Cementation.
