According to officials, the first rapid train line in India’s Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor made its first tunnel breakthrough on Saturday for the Delhi segment.
The breakthrough was made by the tunnel-boring device Sudarshan 4.1 in Khichdipur, East Delhi.
Construction on the 3-km tunnel, which was began in January 2022, is the longest tunnel ever created by a tunnel-boring machine in Delhi. To ensure a lengthy tunnel life, more than 14,000 very precise pre-cast tunnel parts were employed, according to a statement from the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC).
For the 82-kilometer Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS), four tunnels are being built in Delhi to allow for transit in both directions.
According to NCRTC, work is being done on two parallel tunnels, each measuring about 3 km, between Anand Vihar and Khichdipur and leading to the New Ashok Nagar RRTS station. Between Anand Vihar and Vaishali, a second parallel tunnel system of around 2 km is being built in the direction of Sahibabad RRTS station.
When compared to international benchmarks of tunnels with a similar design speed of 180 kmph, with broader and higher rolling stock, the RRTS tunnels’ diameter of 6.5 metres is highly optimised.
According to the Delhi segment of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor, NCRTC “today achieved its first tunnel breakthrough.”
In the presence of Vinay Kumar Singh, MD, NCRTC, Manoj Joshi, secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, pulled the lever to start the breakthrough.
“RRTS is intended to facilitate regional travel in NCR, consequently reducing traffic congestion and air pollution. Planning and implementing RRTS required careful consideration of multi-modal integration. I have no doubt that it will improve NCR’s quality of life,” Joshi remarked.
According to NCRTC, the tunnel that leads to New Ashok Nagar has worked closely with the piling structures of existing metro stations, the foundations of expressways, and non-engineered buildings in Patparganj and Khichdipur.
By 2025, the NCRTC hopes to have the full 82-km-long RRTS corridor open to the public.
Prior to then, a 17-kilometer priority segment between Sahibabad and Duhai would be operationalized.
About 2.5 km of tunnels in the same direction have been completed by Sudarshan 4.2, the other tunnel boring machine. As of Anand Vihar, Sudarshan 4.3 and 4.4 have completed more than 1.5 km and 1 km of tunneling, respectively, in the direction of Sahibabad.
