NEW DELHI: The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) has completed the tunnelling of the entire Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) corridor.
The tunnelling has stands concluded with the completion of a 2 km-long tunnel between Anand Vihar towards Sahibabad. The whole tunnelling process was completed in less than 18 months.
Seven state-of-the-art Sudarshan Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) are being used to create the 12-km long parallel tunnels of the underground section of the country’s first RRTS corridor. The remaining 70 km long section of the corridor is elevated, where about 80% of the viaduct is completed.
To construct the tunnels, over 80,000 precast segments were used. These high-precision precast tunnel segments were cast at the state-of-the-art yards established at Karkardooma in the capital and at Shatabdi Nagar in Meerut.
These segments, measuring 1.5 meters in length, joined together to form the tunnel rings. The diameter of the RRTS tunnels is 6.5 m which is highly optimized as compared to global benchmarks of tunnels for a similar design speed of 180 Kmph with wider and higher rolling stock.
A total of 4 tunnels have been constructed in Delhi from Anand Vihar underground RAPIDX station for to and fro movement of trains. Two parallel tunnels, each approximately 3 kilometres are for connecting Anand Vihar station to New Ashok Nagar station and approximately 2-kilometer-long parallel tunnels are for connecting Anand Vihar station to Sahibabad station.
Meerut on the other hand, comprises three underground stations, namely Meerut Central, Bhainsali, and Begumpul. To connect these stations, a total of six parallel tunnels have been constructed. The tunnelling activities started in Meerut with the launching of Sudarshan 8.1 in April 2022 and all tunnelling activities completed in July 2023.
After the completion of underground tunnelling portions of the corridor, track laying and installation of OHE will pick up the pace. The same has already been started from Anand Vihar underground station and Begumpul in Meerut.