Afcons’ TBM S-1264 Starts Tunneling for Bangalore Metro at RMS

Engineers from Afcons Infrastructure today commissioned tunnel boring machine S-1264 at Rashtriya Military School Station (near Vellara Junction) for Bangalore Metro’s 21.386 km Pink Line which will connect Nagawara – Kalena Agrahara through 18 stations.

This earth pressure balance (EPB) machine is the first of 3 Herrenknecht machines to be deployed by Afcons for constructing twin tunnels on the 3.655 km Package RT-03 (Rashtriya Military School Station – Dairy Circle Ramp) of the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project.

This refurbished TBM passed factory acceptance tests (FAT) in November at Herrenknecht’s Indian plant at Alinjiwakkam, Tamil Nadu. Workers had started lowering its parts into the RMS Station’s shaft in mid-January.

Per the tunneling plan, it will build both twin tunnels between Rashtriya Military School Station and Langford Town Station – a one-way distance of 596 meters which Afcons hopes to accomplish in 235 days. From Langford Town Station, the machine will excavate back northwards.

Here are some snaps shot this morning. The shaft is extremely tight, so its backup gantry will be attached only after the initial drive is completed.

Site preparation / barricading works for Langford Town Station’s box finally began in February after a multi-year long land acquisition battle. Here’s an image by follower Oswald:

A total of 9 TBMs will be deployed by Afcons (3), Larsen & Toubro (4) and ITD Cementation (2) for constructing the city’s Pink Line.

With today’s development – 5 of those have started tunneling. Here’s a status of each with figures displayed from BMRCL’s February Newsletter

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– TMRG