Sudarshan TBMs working wonder at country’s largest tunnel

The NCRTC, which is working on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor of RRTS project, has pressed into service its four Tunnel Boring Machines called Sudarshan and they are working wonders in executing the country’s largest tunnel with a diameter of 6.5 m at the Anand Vihar RRTS station. The TBMs are about 90 meters long consisting of Cutter Head, Front Shield, Middle Shield, Tail Shield, Erector, Screw Conveyor and other important parts. Total Length of the up and down tunnels is about 10 kms.

Two are boring towards New Ashok Nagar and the other two towards Vaishali. The Sudarshan machine places rings which are made of seven segments. These tunnels are over a metre wider than metro tunnels since RRTS trains’ rakes are a bit larger than metro rakes because they also have luggage space and run at higher speed. The first Sudarshan TBM, which is working in the direction of New Ashok Nagar, has completed the construction of about 1.5 km of tunnel. The second Sudarshan has completed the construction of its parallel tunnel for about 1.2 km. Along with this, the third Sudarshan is working towards Sahibabad and it has completed about 700 meters of tunnel and the fourth Sudarshan has commenced tunnelling for the parallel tunnel.