Metro project: Tunnel work from Charbagh to Hussainganj complete
LMRC finished 3.67km tunnel work in just 15 months: Kumar Keshav
LUCKNOW: The Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC) achieved a milestone when tunnel boring machines (TBMs) – ‘Ganga’ and ‘Gomti’ simultaneously broke through the ground face to reach the Hussainganj underground Metro station after completing their third and final drive between the Charbagh and Hussainganj underground Metro stretch on Saturday.
With this, the tunnel work from Charbagh to Hussainganj is complete.
Earlier also, these two TBMs had completed the tunneling drives between the Bapu Bhavan - Hazratganj and the Sachivalaya-Hussainganj Metro stretch in record time.
The Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation had completed the tunnel work of 3.67 km in a record time of just 15 months, said Kumar Keshav, MD, Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation (LMRC). He said the tunnel work had been completed two months ahead of schedule.
“LMRC had started its first tunneling drive from the Bapu Bhavan Metro station on January 18 , 2017 and tunnelling for the whole section was scheduled to be completed by June, 2018 but it has been completed two months ahead of the schedule, credit for which goes to the entire team . Enormous technical and logistical challenges were met with hard work by engineers of LMRC and the Gulermak-TPL JV (the contractor),” he said.
“Tunnelling through the heart of the city posed an enormous engineering challenge as the route passed beneath highly congested areas and basements of commercial establishments. Realizing the enormity of the technical challenge, engineers working on the project carefully planned each and every step in tunneling operation. The final drive from Charbagh to Hussainganj was the most challenging wherein TBMs had to pass just 1m below the bed of Haider Canal near a highly populated area with dilapidated hutments on weak foundations.”
The engineers faced major technical challenges during the final drive, including very hard strata which significantly
reduced the TBMs advancement rate and also posed a critical challenge towards the safety of the TBMs.
Kumar Keshav said, “The state of the art onboard computerized tunnel guidance system provided in TBMs ensured that the tunnelling was done as per the designed alignment to the highest level of accuracy. Extensive instrumentation was done throughout the underground stretch and continuous online and real time monitoring ensured by a team of dedicated experts for safety during TBM operations.”