Delhi-Meerut RAPIDX TBM Sudarshan 4.3 Records 2nd Breakthrough

Shanghai Tunnel Engineering Co. Ltd. (STEC) today celebrated tunnel boring machine Sudarshan 4.3’s second tunnel breakthrough at Sahibabad UP Ramp in Vaishali for the 82.15 km Delhi – Meerut RAPIDX (RRTS) project.

This was Sudarshan 4.3’s final breakthrough and STEC’s sixth of eight tunnel breakthroughs planned for this semi high-speed rail project’s 5.6 km underground Package 4 (Sahibabad UP Ramp – Ashok Nagar DN Ramp).

This 7.5m diameter Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine’s parts had arrived at Anand Vihar RAPIDX Station from China in March 2022.

It was commissioned in July 2022 to build the 2.093 km down-line tunnel from Anand Vihar Station’s northern TBM Launch Shaft (chainage 12813.41) to Sahibabad UP Ramp (chainage 14907.00) located in Vaishali just south-west of Sahibabad RAPIDX Station. Along the way, it recorded its first breakthrough at a ventilation shaft in November 2022.

STEC was awarded a contentious contract for the project’s 5.6 km Package 4 by National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) in December 2020 to build four tunnels between New Ashok Nagar DN Ramp – Anand Vihar – Sahibabad UP Ramp.

With this development, Sudarshan 4.3’s job is done! It’s become the 3nd of 7 machines, after STEC’s Sudarshan 4.1 and Afcons’ TBM S90 on Package 8 in Meerut, to complete all of its tunneling assignments.

The next breakthrough in Package 4 will likely be by Sudarshan 4.2 working on the Anand Vihar – Khichripur up-line tunnel. Back in April, NCRTC had reported that it had completed tunneling roughly 2.5 kms out of 2.82 kms.

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– TMRG