Delhi Metro has completed the construction of new tunnels that measure more than the existing operational length, taking it closer to the eventual launch of the entire Phase III project by September next year.
The tunneling work, mainly underneath the arterial Outer Ring Road and Ring Road, got over with the completion of a 1.25-kilometre-long underground corridor between Vasant Vihar and Munirka on the Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden Line) yesterday.
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief Mangu Singh and other senior officials were present when the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) broke through at Munirka, 20 metres below the surface, metro said in a statement.
"With this tunnel breakthrough, DMRC in Phase 3 has now completed one of the largest-ever tunneling projects in the world taken up in any urban area where a record 30 TBMs were deployed to bore close to 80 kilometres of tunnels (combining length of tunnels both to and fro movement of trains)," it said.
The total underground corridor length, including the stations, will be about 54 kms in Phase III, as against 35 kms in phase II and 13 kms in Phase I.
The new tunnels in Magenta Line (38-km-long) pass below operational elevated viaducts at three locations, namely Janakpuri West, near IGI Airport and Kalkaji Mandir while at Hauz Khas, it goes underneath the already operational tunnel of Yellow Line.
Of the 59-km-long Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar corridor), which once operational will be the longest line, about 19 kms is underground, of which a section passes below the operational tunnel of Yellow Line at INA.
"All the tunneling work on this line (Pink) has also been completed. However, at some locations, the TBMs are now being retrieved following the completion of work," metro said.
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