Helen, Margarita to resume Metro tunneling work soon

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) is all set to resume tunneling work along the East-West corridor this weekend, after a gap of two months.

Sources in BMRCL told Deccan Herald that the assembly work of two tunnel boring machines (TBMs), Helen and Margarita, was almost complete. Helen will start the boring work on the Central College-Vidhana Soudha stretch, which is part of the East-West corridor, from the college side. A senior official of BMRCL said Margarita would start boring in the second week of May, once its assembly work was completed.

The BMRCL had achieved a breakthrough in tunneling work on the Majestic-Central College stretch in March first week. However, the tunneling work was stopped as the TBMs needed to be assembled for tunneling work on the next stretch. A total of 4.8 km of the East-West corridor (between Minsk Square and Magadi Road entrance) would be underground in four stretches.

Sources in BMRCL said tunneling work between Minsk Square and Vidhana Soudha (152 metre) would start in June first week and machines for the same were awaited from New Delhi. As far as the tunneling work of North-South corridor (Jakkarayanakere field to KR Road entrance) is concerned, officials said, work was expected to start in July. An official said three machines for the purpose were being imported from China and Germany and one of them had already arrived at Chennai port. The remaining machines would come by July second week. As much as four km of the North-South Corridor (Sampige Road to KR Road entrance) would go underground in different stretches. A total of eight stations would be located underground, on both the corridors.

When questioned about station works at Majestic, a senior official from BMRCL said it would only begin in 2013.