L&T’s Rishikesh-Karnaprayag Rail TBM Passes Factory Tests

Herrenknecht AG on Tuesday completed factory acceptance tests (FAT) on Larsen & Toubro’s first tunnel boring machine, TBM Shakti (S1310), for the 125 km Rishikesh-Karnaprayag railway line project’s Package 4.

This new railway line by RVNL will link both towns in Uttarakhand through 12 stations. L&T was awarded a Rs. 3337.60 crore contract for Package 4 in January 2021 to build the section from chainage 47.360 to 63.118.

Package 4 includes 14.577-km up-line and 13.123-km down-line tunnels, out of which 10.490 km and 10.317 km will be constructed using 2 Herrenknecht Hard Rock TBMs with diameters of 9.1 meters. Also included in the scope are a 240m embankment for Devprayag Station, a 300m embankment at Janasu and one minor bridge.

TUMAS India Pvt. Ltd. – Altinok Musavirlik Muhenislik A.S (JV) is Package 4’s detailed design consultant (DDC). Some snaps via Rahul Sharma:

L&T is chasing a 60 month completion deadline. Per their old press release, this will be the biggest TBM to be deployed in the Himalayan region, and the TBM bored tunnel length of 20.807 km will be the longest for any project in the Himalayan region.

Back in January, Herrenknecht completed factory tests on L&T’s first TBM (Marsu) for the 1000 MW Pakal Dul Hydroelectric Project in Jammu & Kashmir – see details and snaps here.

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– TMRG