By Ashley Karen
With the fulfilment of the tunnelling project on the Janakpuri West – RK Ashram Marg line between Krishna Park Extension and Keshopur, DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) achieved a new milestone.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Manoj Joshi, and the Chairman of the DMRC, Vikas Kumar, were among the top officials who has watched the TBM’s breakthrough at Krishna Park Extension after excavating a 1.4-kilometre-long tunnel.
As officials reported, a giant 73-meter-long tunnel boring machine has operated to make this tunnel breakthrough. However, due to the pandemic, the work was delayed constantly. Thus, the completion of this line conveys a remarkable achievement for DMRC.
On this section, which is a part of a 2.2-kilometre underground lane from Janakpuri West to Keshopur, two similar circular tubes for up-and-down travel are constructed now. In this part, the other parallel tunnel’s building was completed in December last year.
By completing the tunnelling work between Krishna Park Extension and Keshopur, DMRC achieved a remarkable construction milestone in Phase 4.
This new tunnel section is an extension of the current Magenta line tunnel, already constructed for the Botanical Garden – Janakpuri West corridor, which is presently working.
The tunnel was constructed between 14 and 16 meters below the surface. More than 2,000 rings were positioned in place in the tunnel as well.
There were multiple challenges during the tunnelling construction, like changing sewage pipes at an 8-meter depth while using the micro tunnelling technique. Moreover, a tunnel was constructed using the box-pushing technique without disrupting traffic due to heavy traffic on the Outer Ring Road.
The construction of 28.76 kilometers of underground wires is a part of the Phase IV work that has already acquired permission. In total, there will be 9.41 kilometers of subterranean portions along the Janakpuri West-RK Ashram Marg route.
