Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS: Breakthrough Achieved On Fifth Tunnel Of Corridor

Using latest techniques, NCRTC has achieved the breakthrough of the fifth tunnel in a congested area of Meerut, on the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor.

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)-Sudarshan 8.1 deployed for tunneling about 1-km-long tunnel between Bhainsali to Begumpul made a breakthrough on the tunnel retrieving shaft constructed at Begumpul station on Saturday (24 June).

Tunnelling by a TBM in this section was a challenging task. The tunnel in the section crosses the congested areas of the city, passing under the Begumpul drain to reach the Begumpul station.

In order to cross this drain by Sudarshan 8.1, the latest techniques were used and utmost care was taken by the experts. The section also had a very sharp horizontal curve of 600 m radius, where tunneling was a difficult task.

Despite all the challenges, the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) team, taking all the safety precautions with utmost diligence and care, made it possible. The breakthrough of this tunnel has been achieved at a depth of 14 m.

Two parallel tunnels are constructed for the up and down movement of trains in the underground corridor of Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS).

This is the first parallel tunnel of the third and last underground section of Meerut. Sudarshan 8.2 is tunneling for its parallel tunnel and has completed almost 70 per cent of the work. With the completion of this parallel tunnel, the tunnelling work in the underground section of Meerut will be completed.

After its retrieval, it was dismantled and the cutter head and shield, laden on the trailers were transported to the launching shaft built at the Bhainsali station. It was then re-assembled and re-launched for the tunnelling of this about 1-km long tunnel between Bhainsali to Begumpul.

Sudarshan is a state-of-the-art and sophisticated tunnel boring machine whose every part is very delicate. Hence, after its retrieval all its parts are thoroughly checked, repaired and replaced. Then all the parts are re-assembled and testing of the machine is carried out. Only after ensuring its safe and efficient implementation, it is relaunched for tunneling.

More than 4,500 pre-cast segments have been used to build this tunnel. In the tunneling process, these segments are inserted and seven segments are combined to make one ring. Each segment is 1.5 m long and 275 mm thick. These segments and rings are connected with the help of bolts.

The tunnel segments are being cast at NCRTC's casting yard in Shatabdi Nagar with assured quality control.

The project is being implemented as per the scheduled timeline. Meerut Central, Bhaisali, and Begumpul are the underground stations in Meerut, out of which Meerut Central and Bhaisali are the Meerut metro stations, whereas Begumpul station will serve both RAPIDX and Metro.

NCRTC is going to provide local transit services, Meerut Metro, on the RRTS network itself, with 13 stations in the span of 21 km.

The entire corridor is targeted to be operationalised for the public by 2025.