By Lynda Myer
The ceremony of site acceptance test for the first of two 6.65 m diameter and 95 m long EPB TBMs at Agra Metro was held by the Robbins crew and contractor Afcons Infrastructure Ltd (Mumbai)/ Sam India Builtwell Pvt Ltd (Delhi) in February 2023. Excavation of a 1.3 km long tunnel in soft soils, for Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (UPMRC) was up to this machine. With the first TBM well into tunneling, a second 6.65 m Robbins EPB underwent site acceptance on April 13, 2023 to bore a parallel 1.3 km long tunnel in soft soils.
Following an intermediate breakthrough of the first machine named Yamuna made into the Agra Fort station and completion of the Jama Masjid to Agra Fort stretch of the metro, work on the Agra Metro attained an important landmark on April 26, 2023. Commissioning process of the machine was done in February from the launch pit at Ramleela Maidan, whereas it dug a total of 345 m in sand and clay in just 77 days. Currently this machine is due to continue excavating to the Taj Mahal station. The civil work for all underground stations has already been completed, while the TBMs are driven the tunnels.
The effort of UPMRC is to starting metro operations in March 2024, 6 months ahead of schedule.
The General Consultant Engineering Services project for the Kanpur and Agra Metro rail lines in the state of Uttar Pradesh was granted to The Joint Venture Italferr (Itay)/TYPSA (Spain) in 2020 for a total duration of 5 years.
The Integrated Mobility Plan has therefore envisaged the development of an Agra mass transit system along two priority corridors: Corridor-1 from Sikandra to Taj East Gate (14 km): 6.35 km elevated, 7.65 km underground, 13 stations; Corridor-2 from Agra Cantt to Kalindi Vihar (16.2 km): 15.4 km elevated, 0.8 km at grade, 14 stations.
As the third most populated city in Uttar Pradesh, in recent decades Agra has experienced unprecedented increase with a more than tenfold raise in urban area and an exponential growth in population that have greatly impacted the city’s transportation system.
