The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) on Saturday achieved another important achievement of the Tughlakabad-Airport (Erosity) Corridor under the Phase-4 Metro Project. Known as ‘Golden Line’, the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) successfully broke the Tughlakabad railway colony station of this line. Earlier, many tunnel breakthroughs have been established by Delhi Metro on this line.
DMRC completed the 0.792 km long tunnel between Maa Anandamayi Marg and Tughlakabad Railway Colony Station. Also, with the help of 96 meter long TBM (tunnel boring machine), success was also achieved in building a tunnel. The tunnel is built at a depth of 18 meters on an average. It has 566 Precast concrete rings. The inner diameter of the tunnel is 5.8 meters. Earth pressure balanced method (EPBM) technology was used in this construction. DMRC is building two parallel circular tunnels for up and down movement on this section as part of the Aerocity-Tugalkabad corridor. The second parallel tunnel is expected to get success in July 2025.
DMRC Phase 4 Tunnel
These tunnel ring was cast in a fully mechanized casting yard installed in Mundka. The concrete segment was cured with the steam coating system to quickly strengthen.
Metro Phase 4 underground tunnel
So far, 40.109 km of underground lines are being constructed under the work of Phase 4 approved. The Aerocity-Tugalkabad corridor has a total of 19.343 km underground segment.
Metro tunnel construction process
The underground tunnels of Delhi Metro are being excavated using a TBM machine. TBM is a machine that is used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross-sections through various soil and rocky layers. They can be designed to pierce anything from hard rock to sand. TBM has revolutionized tunnels worldwide, causing a tunnel to be dug without damaging buildings and other superficial structures. The DMRC is using TBM from step 1 for tunnel construction work. In phase 3, about 50 km of underground section was constructed, about 30 TBMs were deployed in the national capital.
What will be the benefit?
With the construction of Phase-4, a total of 65.20 km of new lines are expanding in Delhi Metro. Of which more than 40 kilometers will be underground. The Golden Line (Tughlakabad -Arocity Corridor) is considered to be its most important link. This will connect the southern part of Delhi to the IGI Airport. This will take the least time for people to complete their journey, along with this they will also be able to get rid of many interchange, especially those who travel everyday.
