Pune Metro achieves ‘breakthrough’ of constructing 1.6-km underground tunnel

“The tunnel breakthrough was achieved in the underground section at the north end of Civil Court interchange station. This signifies completion of tunneling of the Range Hill-Shivaji Nagar-Civil Court stretch,” read a press statement of the Pune Metro rail.

The ongoing Pune Metro rail work reached a major milestone on Monday when the underground tunnel construction “achieved a breakthrough” after completing work on the 1.6-km stretch from Agriculture College to Civil Court in Shivajinagar.

“The tunnel breakthrough was achieved in the underground section at the north end of Civil Court interchange station. This signifies completion of tunneling of the Range Hill-Shivaji Nagar-Civil Court stretch,” read a press statement of the Pune Metro rail.

A breakthrough is when a tunnel boring machine (TBM) completes its scheduled underground stretch, and it comes out to the bottom of the shaft. The 1.6-km stretch of underground section, up to this breakthrough, was completed in around 11 months. It was started on October 30 last year.

The Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation is executing the Pune Metro Rail Project, which has two corridors. The first one, from Vanaz to Ramwadi, is an elevated line and the other, from PCMC to Swargate, is an elevated line from PCMC to Agriculture College and an underground line from there, up to Swargate.

The underground section stretches for about 6 km, with stations to be set up at Shivajinagar bus stand, Civil Court, Phadke houd, Mandai and Swargate. Forty three per cent of the overall civil work has been completed till date.

This TBM is one of the two machines being used for tunneling the Up line and Down line in the underground section and has completed tunneling up to 1.6 km, whereas the other TBM has completed 1.5 km from Agriculture College. The second TBM will also achieve breakthrough soon, stated Pune Metro. This was successfully achieved on schedule due to deliberate planning and execution in spite of the challenges of the pandemic Covid-19, it said.

Maha-Metro is doing the tunneling work of Pune Metro with astute planning and utmost precision, said Brijesh Dixit, MD of Maha-Metro.

? The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest Pune News, download Indian Express App.

Source: Read Full Article