NEW DELHI: As part of Delhi Metro’s Phase-IV project, the first tunnel boring machine on the under-construction Aerocity-Tughlakabad corridor began work on Friday, officials said. At present, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is doing construction work on 65.1 km of phase-IV priority corridors which comprise Janakpuri West to RK Ashram Marg (28.92 km), Majlis Park to Maujpur (12.55 km), which are extensions of the already operational Magenta Line and Pink Line respectively, and Tughalakabad to Aerocity (23.62 km) which is being built as ‘Silver Line’.
The DMRC on Friday tweeted, “The first Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) on the Aerocity-Tughlakabad Corridor started its drive today to bore a 1.27km long tunnel between Chhatarpur and Kishangarh stations in the presence of Vikas Kumar, MD/DMRC and other senior officials.”
As part of the phase-IV work approved so far, about 27 kilometres of underground lines will be constructed, it said in another tweet. Janakpuri West-RK Ashram Marg, Majlis Park-Maujpur, and Tughalakabad-Aerocity are the three corridors that are under construction in this phase. The Silver Line will connect the Violet Line and Airport Line.
At present, DMRC is handling operations and maintenance of over 390 km of network, comprising 286 metro stations, including the Rapid Metro in Gurugram and Aqua Line in Greater Noida, and is ranked among one of the world’s largest metro networks.
The work on phase-IV had begun in December 2019 with a groundbreaking ceremony, but it was hit after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in Delhi. Asked if he saw any cost escalation due to the Covid factor, DMRC chief Vikas Kumar had last year said that he did not see any major cost overrun as to the timelines of the Ph-IV project, but the timelines might be impacted due to the pandemic.