Metro's saga of delays continues for Swastik-Peenya line

After having missed the December 2012 deadline to commission Reach 3 and 3 (A)--Swastik in Malleswaram to Peenya--the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) maintained that it was expecting to begin operations on the line by July this year.

However, answering a specific question on Monday, BMRCL Managing Director N Sivasailam said the construction work on the stretch will be completed by June-July, meaning the operations will not start before the year-end.

“We will complete the construction work by June-July, following which the oscillation and other trials will commence,” Sivasailam said. The 9.9-km stretch, with 11 stations, will have to get final clearance from the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS), which can only be obtained after oscillation and other trials, which will be monitored by Research Design & Standards Organisation (RDSO), is complete.

BMRCL sources said the construction work got delayed because of litigation over land meant for Sandal Soap Factory station and delay from South Western Railway in giving clearance for the viaduct passing over Bangalore-Tumkur Railway line near Srirampura.
On whether BMRCL is in a position to obtain necessary certificates in a speedy manner, given the expertise from obtaining the same for Reach-1 (MG Road-Baiyappanahalli), Sivasailam said: “We cannot say anything on that.” Test trials and oscillation trials on Reach-1 had taken about three months before certification.

Underground stretch

On the other hand, the first tunnel boring machine (TBM) in the North-South Corridor of Namma Metro Phase 1 achieved breakthrough at City Market underground Metro station early Monday.

An official release from BMRCL said the TBM had started burrowing from Prof P Shivashankar Circle (near KIMS Hospital) about four months ago and has completed 393 metres of tunnelling before reaching the City Market underground station site in front of Vanivilas and Victoria hospitals.

Sivasailam said another TBM, Cauvery, will reach City Market in the next two weeks, following which both the TBMs will move towards Majestic. Unlike slurry-based TBMs Helen and Margarita, which are burrowing tunnels on the East-West Corridor, Krishna is an earth-pressure balance (EPB) TBM with a ‘mixed shield,’ tailor-made by M/s Herrenknecht of Germany.

The machine was assembled in and imported from China. While slurry is used to maintain pressure within the machine in slurry-based TBMs, extracts (from tunnelling) are used to maintain pressure in EPB TBMs.