TBM Urja Will Begin Tunnelling Connecting Cantonment And Pottery Town For Bengaluru Metro
Update: 2021-12-22 13:15 IST
Urja, which has drilled a distance of 855 metre for over a year, is the first TBM to achieve a breakthrough on Namma Metro’s Pink Line from Kalenga Agrahara to Nagawara (21 km).
According to BMRCL officials, the Bengaluru Metro's tunnel boring machine (TBM) Urja will begin tunnelling the 907-meter length connecting Cantonment and Pottery Town stations on Wednesday. In September of this year, Urja made a breakthrough by excavating between Cantonment and Shivajinagar. Officials stated that it was transferred and rebuilt for its future journey.
Urja is the very first TBM to break through on Namma Metro's Pink Line from Kalenga Agrahara to Nagawara, having drilled a distance of 855 metres for almost a year (21 km). It is 102 metres long and worth Rs 70 crore. Urja, the first TBM operated by Larsen & Toubro (L&T), began drilling operations in August 2020.
Officials had previously said that Urja began constructing the first tunnel ring from Cantonment station on August 20, 2020, and has effectively tunnelled up to Shivajinagar station amid the most severe geological conditions and beneath Bengaluru's oldest communities. TBM tunnelling has been the most advanced PLC-based technology, but the precise operation of such equipment requires highly qualified people and field expertise.
Meanwhile, in November, Metro recorded a 99.98 percent operational effectiveness, with 81,51,449 passengers aboard and a revenue of '20.41 crore. The highest ridership (3,29,553) was recorded on November 29, while the highest earnings ('87,59,115) were recorded on November 8. Smart cards were used by 66.61 percent of commuters, tokens by 33.27 percent, and group tickets by 0.12 percent.