With a breakthrough at Lajpat Nagar, Delhi Metro today completed work on a 1,565 m-long tunnel, its second longest in the upcoming Phase III of the network.
The construction of the tunnel on the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar (Phase III) corridor, had started at South Extension with a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). The longest tunnelling drive of this phase would be from Nizamuddin to Ashram on the same corridor, with a length of 1,691 m, a DMRC official said.
The said tunnel between South Extension and Lajpat Nagar, is one of the twin tunnels being constructed for the up and down movement of trains, with a diameter of 5.8 m.
"The challenge was in taking the TBM through the thickly populated areas of Kotla (Mubarakpur) and Defence Colony, which required very thorough instrumentation and monitoring," the official said.
The maximum depth of the tunnel in this drive was approximately 21 m in Defence Colony area.
Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar section would be a 58 km-long corridor, which will cover major localities along the arterial Ring Road of the national capital and is expected to be operational by the end of 2016. Over 19 kms of underground lines with 12 underground stations are being constructed in this corridor.
The existing Lajpat Nagar metro station is being developed into a major interchange hub where commuters will be able to change trains between the Faridabad-Kashmere Gate corridor (currently operational between Badarpur and ITO) and the Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor.
