Namma Metro: North-South tunnel to be ready by next May

Bengaluru: The underground section of Metro Rail’s north-south corridor, which has been a major hurdle for BMRCL to complete Phase 1, will be completed by March next and will be functional by April-May, said officials of Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.

The Krishna tunnel boring machine (TBM) that is tunneling between K.R. Market and Chickpet stations has completed drilling 405 metres (270 rings), while it is yet to finish 22.5m (15 rings) to reach the Chickpet station. Once it reaches Chickpet, it will be deployed between Chickpet and Majestic stations.

The other TBM, Kaveri, is drilling between Chickpet and Majestic stations. It has completed 324 m (216 rings), while another 416m (277 rings) is remaining to reach the Majestic station. It is below Maruti Plaza building near Vijaylaxmi Theatre in Chickpet. Similarly, Margarita, which is tunneling between Majestic station and North Ramp, has completed 774 metres (516rings), while 183 m (122 rings) is remaining to reach North Ramp.

Godavari TBM, which is tunneling between North Ramp and Majestic station, has finished 355m (237 rings), while 610 m (407rings) is remaining to reach Majestic. But the other TBM, Godavari, is still not functional. Mr Vasanth Rao, general manager, finance, said, “The cutter head of the machine has arrived. Engineers are working to replace it. In four weeks, the machine will be ready.”

Bengaluru Metro began work on 42-km Phase 1 in 2006. It has opened only four of the nine stretches for public so far. Started with an estimated cost of Rs 5,400 crore, the estimation has now gone up to Rs 13,845 crore. BMRCL has been dogged by delays and has failed to meet deadlines. It has missed three deadlines of December 2012, December 2013 and March 2015 to complete the first phase.