Namma Metro’s TBM Urja sets single-day tunnelling record

Bengaluru Metro’s tunnel boring machine (TBM) Urja, tunnelling between Cantonment and Pottery Town stations, achieved a progress of 27 m of tunnelling work in a single day on Monday, which is the best till date, according to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL).
Deployed by Larsen & Toubro, Urja was the first TBM to commence drilling works in August 2020.
In December last year, TBM Urja started tunnelling the stretch between Cantonment and Pottery Town stations, a distance of 907 metres.
Urja had achieved a breakthrough after tunnelling between Cantonment and Shivajinagar in September last year.
Urja, which has drilled a distance of 855 metre for over a year, was the first TBM to achieve a breakthrough on Namma Metro’s Pink Line from Kalenga Agrahara to Nagawara (21 km).
“Urja started laying the first tunnel ring on August 20, 2020 from Cantonment station and has successfully tunnelled up to Shivajinagar station under the most difficult geological conditions and below the oldest settlements of Bengaluru. Tunnelling using TBM is the most advanced PLC-based technology but the operation of such machines with high precision needs highly-skilled manpower and experts on the field,” officials had explained earlier.