Afcons Infrastructure – Sam India Consortium in November celebrated the final turning of the S115 tunnel boring machine (TBM) at Agra College station for the 14.25 km Line 1 of the Agra Metro Phase 1 (Sikandra – Taj East Gate) project.
This was the third turn of S115 and the seventh turn for the remaining part of the underground section of Agra Metro Line 1, outside the operational priority corridor, between RBS ramp and Mankameshwar Mandir station. Overall, this was the 15th breakthrough for the 7.93 km AGCC-02 package connecting the RBS ramp to the Taj Mahal ramp.
S115 is a refurbished Terratec Earth Pressure Balance (EPB) machine and Afcons’ fourth TBM. In December 2023 it was commissioned to construct a 2.2 km tunnel for the upstream line from RBS College ramp towards Agra College interchange station.
It first built a 720m tunnel for the upline from the RBS ramp to RBS College station (December 2023 – April 2024), it was then dragged through the RBS College station box and then built a 684m tunnel towards Raja Ki Mandi station (May 2024 – August 2024).
For its final assignment it was dragged through Raja Ki Mandi station and relaunched in September to construct a tunnel of around 535 meters to Agra College interchange station, where it arrived on the night of November 11.
The Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) has awarded the AGCC-02 Rs underground package to Afcons – Sam India Consortium. 1819.79 crore civil construction contract in March 2022 with a maturity of 48 months.
Their section from range 3630,000 to 11564,485 consists of twin tunnels connecting 7 stations to Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Jama Masjid, SN Medical College, Agra College, Raja Ki Mandi and RBS College.
The TBM S115 has an interesting history. It is one of the three machines of Afcons (S88, S89 or S90) which has been used to construct 6 tunnels over 82 km Delhi – Package 8 of Meerut RRTS project within Meerut city.
The machine with an original cutting head diameter of 7.51 m was downsized and reconfigured to meet the requirements of the Agra Metro Tunnel. A new cutting head has been fitted which I believe has a diameter of around 6.52 metres.
The work of S115 is now completed in Agra and its future remains unknown to me.
With 15 discoveries, there are now 3 more discoveries left in the Agra Metro Phase 1 project: 1 at Agra College with TBMs S-718C and 2 at Mankameshwar (formerly Jama Masjid) with TBMs 215 and 324. I expect that final to be recorded around the end of the first quarter of 2025.
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