The Hindu : New Delhi News : Metro digging work gets more teeth

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Wednesday, Feb 20, 2008
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New Delhi

Metro digging work gets more teeth

Staff Reporter

A giant tunnel boring machine lowered into the ground for new underground section in South Delhi

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Ready to roll: The Tunnel Boring Machine weighing over 88 tonnes being lowered into a shaft at INA to start tunnelling work in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: A huge, 88-tonne Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) was lowered into the ground at the construction site for the Delhi Metro Railway’s upcoming new underground stretch between INA and Jor Bagh here on Tuesday.

The TBM was lowered by a 400-tonne crane specially imported from Taiwan for this purpose.

The underground tunnelling from INA to Jor Bagh will be done at a depth of about 15 metres below the surface and as the soil in this area is very soft the TBM will be used as an Earth Pressure Balancing Machine.

“The TBM will balance the earth pressures while the concrete lining of the tunnel is being made below the surface to avoid earth settlement and collapses during construction. This special boring machine popularly known as EPBM (Earth Pressure Balancing Machine) will take 15 days to assemble below the surface after which it will commence actual boring,” said a DMRC official.

Since there will be two tunnels to allow to and fro movements of trains on this section, another EPBM will be lowered after a month at INA for building the other tunnel.

DMRC officials claimed that construction of the section between INA and Jor Bagh that would pass under the existing Ring Railway would be carried out without disturbing or stopping the movement of local trains even for a single day. This line also passes near the Safdarjung flyover.

“The entire underground tunnelling will be monitored very carefully by DMRC. More than 100 such monitoring settlement points will be set up for this purpose and the monitoring will be done round-the-clock to ensure full safety of the structures on the surface,” DMRC officials said.

The INA-Jor Bagh section, which is about 945 metres, is part of the 12.5 km Central Secretariat-Qutub Minar Line that is scheduled to be opened by June 2010. This line will be extended further up to Gurgaon.

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