Ahmedabad (Metro Rail News): Tunnel Boring Machine S-71 operated by Larsen & Toubro made a breakthrough at Shahpur Station from Gheekanta Station for Ahmedabad Metro Phase 1 project’s 20.737 km East-West Line-1.
This was S-71’s second and penultimate breakthrough, and Larsen & Toubro’s third of six breakthroughs planned on the line’s 4.378 km underground package-2, between Kalupur Railway Station – Ghee Kanta – Shahpur – West Ramp, which was awarded by the Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation (GMRC) in January 2016.
This Ø6.57 earth pressure balance machine was originally manufactured by Hubei Tiandi Heavy Industries (THI), and previously saw action in Delhi to build tunnels on the 6.3 km package CC-27 (Hauz Khas – Shankar Vihar) of Phase 3’s new Magenta Line.
Factory acceptance tests (FAT) were locally completed in February 2018 and the machine was first commissioned from Kalupur Station in July 2018 to build the roughly 1.75 km up-line tunnel to Gheekanta Station. After its breakthrough in July 2019, it was recommissioned to build the roughly 1.2 km up-line tunnel towards Shahpur Station.
Tunneling works on the 2.446 km package UG-1 (East Ramp – Kalupur) were completed by Afcons Infrastructure in February 2019 when a double breakthrough was achieved by their Herrenknecht TBMs S-710 and S-1134 just 10 months after their launch from the East Ramp in April and June 2018 respectively.
Package UG-2 now has 3 more breakthroughs pending – one for the parallel down-line tunnel at Shahpur by TBM S72 in the coming weeks, and then the final two at the West Ramp near the Sabarmati Riverfront where a roughly 260 meter bridge is under construction according to officials.
