NEW DELHI: To avoid inconvenience to the public, the National Capital Regional Transport Corporation (NCRTC) will use micro-tunneling technique for diverting Delhi Jal Board’s interceptor sewer line at Anand Vihar station site. NCRTC officials say the sewer line falls in the way of the Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) corridor.
Micro-tunneling is a trenchless underground tunnel construction technique generally used for constructing smaller tunnels for diversion of utilities such as drainage pipelines to minimise public inconvenience caused during construction.
About 600-meter interceptor sewer line of 900 mm diameter high capacity nonpressure (NP-4) concrete pipes will be laid at a depth of about 6 meter, said officials. “Micro-tunneling is an efficient, fast and reliable way for installing RCC or concrete pipelines below highways, railroads, runways, ports and environmentally sensitive areas without disturbing the surface activities and users. It allows free public movement in the area. Therefore, it is mostly adopted in places where footfall is high and trenching is not advisable as the extraction of debris can restrict people’s movement,” said an official.
Apart from providing the next-generation mobility solution in the NCR, many basic utility infrastructures are also being constructed, upgraded or relocated by NCRTC which are obstructing the alignment of the RRTS corridor.
The construction activities at Anand Vihar are gaining momentum with the work of launching the shaft of tunnel boring machine. Two tunnel boring machines will be lowered in the launching shaft to bore RRTS twin tunnels from Anand Vihar towards Sarai Kale Khan to construct around 3-km tunnels. Officials said it would be the longest tunnel section between any two stations among the Metro systems in India.