Rlys approves standard gauge for Metro rail
Second tunnel borer begins work
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) on Thursday announced that the Ministry of Railways had approved standard gauge as the track structure for Namma Metro’s Reach-1 (Byappanahalli-MG Road).
The Research Design and Structures Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow, in continuation to the Oscillation and EBD trials conducted earlier in June will conduct long confirmatory runs on the section for four days.
The Ministry of Railways will, thereafter, issue final approval for Schedule of Dimensions that will be submitted for issue of safety certification.
The BMRCL had faced problems with the Schedule of Dimensions in April this year, which had contributed to the missing of the Ugadi (April 4) deadline.
Further, the second tunnel boring machine (TBM), christened Margarita, began boring the tunnel from the Majestic TBM Shaft leading to Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium on the East-West corridor of Metro Phase-1.
Margarita is expected to complete the tunnel between Majestic and Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium in a year’s time. Every time it reaches an underground station - Central College, Vidhana Soudha and Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium - it has to be dismantled and reassembled before it can begin work from the other end of the station shaft.
Margarita is the second TBM manufactured by Hitachi Zosen and is powered by a 3,000-KW diesel generator located at KSRTC’s Kempe Gowda Bus Station. Both the machines use slurry — a mixture of water and bentonite — to maintain the pressure inside the tunnel.
Helen’s work
The first TBM to begin tunnel work in the first week of June, Helen, has so far burrowed about 60 metres and crossed the stretch of Dhanwantri Road.
Stating the slow pace of burrowing the tunnel was due to the initial hiccups, BMRCL officials said: “The machine will burrow along Kempe Gowda Road till Mysore Bank headquarters before taking a left turn under the Palace Road.”
The joint venture, Continental Engineering Corporation-Soma-CEC International Corporation India, has taken up the job of boring the tunnel and construction of four underground stations for the underground stretch of east-west Corridor of Namma Metro (Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and Magadi Road).
Also, the tunnel work between Prof Shivashankar Circle (K R Road) and Swastik, on the North-South Corridor, will begin in the coming weeks as the contractor is in the process of sinking the TBM shaft. The Rs 700-crore contract for the stretch has been awarded to Coastal-TTS, yet another joint venture.
Designing and construction of the K R Market and Chikpet stations and tunnels and ramps for 3.76-km stretch will also be part of the joint venture.
