BMRCL starts its tunnel work for underground Metro section

Bengaluru: Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has recently begun its tunnelling work for the city's underground Metro section. The second task of boring through the hard rock from Cantonment Metro station to Shivaji Nagar Metro station begins on Saturday.

In the recent day's Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) which are imported from China and reached the port in Chennai from where they were transported to Bengaluru in March and work was stopped due to COVID outbreak. Now the machines have been placed in the underground Corridor of the Nagawara-Gottigere Line of (Reach-6) of Metro's Phase-II. One machine named 'Avani' began tunnelling from Shivaji Nagar to MG Road station, at a distance of 1100 meters.

"The second machine was placed to the constriction area on Friday evening and on Saturday the ramp was installed to run the machine. It is just started and as per the geographical condition of the city, the machine will drill a distance of 2.5 metres per day. The remaining details will be shared later" says BMRCL official.

The 13.9-km underground corridor runs from South Ramp near Jayanagar Fire station to North Ramp near Nagawara underground Metro Station with 12 underground stations. The two tunnels are set to be created with each running to a length of 10.37 km.

According to the reports the first tunnelling machine Urja has completed drilling around 20 meters. In coming days the third machine 'Lavi' will start work in October and also fourth tunnelling machine 'Vindhya' will also bore the same direction.