Metro bores tunnel till Nehru stadium

Construction work on the controversial Metro line to Badarpur is progressing at a fast pace. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) wants to ensure that it gets operational before Commonwealth Games 2010 since Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium falls on this line. The first tunnel on the underground stretch was completed on Wednesday.

The 586-metre-long tunnel was bored using a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), which was lowered underground from a shaft in Jangpura on September 9, 2008. The tunnel is 15-16 metres below the surface. The earth excavated from the area has been deposited in an earth fill area in Sarita Vihar.

Three more TBMs are working on the underground stretch of this Metro line — one machine digging the other tunnel for the same stretch and two TBMs boring between Udyog Bhawan and Khan Market. All the tunnelling on the corridor is expected to be over by August this year and the entire line is scheduled for a September 2010 completion.

For the entire Phase II of construction DMRC will use 14 TBMs. This is for the first time in any Indian city and perhaps for the first time in any Asian city that so many TBMs will be used simultaneously for building Metro tunnels.