Wait ends, Krishna TBM finally breaks through at Majestic

But Metro north-south operations will start only by April 2017

 The uncertainty over the progress of the Krishna tunnel boring machine (TBM) has came to a dramatic end, but the wait for the 42-km Phase-I of Namma Metro to become fully operational will continue.

Marking the completion of the entire tunneling of Phase-I, the Krishna TBM boring from Chickpet emerged at the southern shaft of the Kempegowda (Majestic) station on Friday afternoon. This is an important development for the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) to meet the April 2017 deadline for Phase-I, but further delay cannot be ruled out.

Made by German firm Herrenknecht, the Earth Pressure Balance TBM was put to work at Chickpet on December 27, 2015. It took nine months to tunnel 747 metres. With this, the green line will be through from Nagasandra in the north to Yelachenahalli in the south.

April launch

BMRCL managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola told reporters that the final breakthrough would help them expedite the post-tunneling work on a fixed timeline without any uncertainty. “The Krishna TBM faced a lot of problems due to the complex geology and dense population over the ground. There was uncertainty during the tunnelling. With the final breakthrough, we are now in a certain phase where the work could be planned in a fixed timeframe,” he said.

The BMRCL has set a January-end deadline for trial runs on the remaining stretch from Yelachenahalli to Sampige Road via Majestic. “As soon as the tracks are ready (where the Kaveri TBM broke through), we will send trains towards the Jayanagar side for the trial runs. We expect it to happen by the end of November and full-fledged trial runs will take place on this line once the second track is ready (where the Krishna TBM broke through),” Kharola said.

The work on the Majestic interchange station will be completed by this December while the City Market and Chickpet stations would be ready by January, he added. The BMRCL chief reiterated that the entire stretch would be opened in April next year.

At present, the 8-km elevated line between National College and Yelachenahalli in southern Bengaluru, which were ready back in 2015, have been lying idle, because of the unfinished tunnelling and connectivity to Majestic.