The construction of the launching shaft commenced on 13.06.2021 in Anand Vihar, Delhi for Tunnelling work. The first Diaphragm Wall (D-Wall) panel reinforcement cage of size of about 20 m deep (equal to height of a 10-storey building) and 5 m wide was lowered and concreted.
- With this milestone, construction of the underground section for RRTS has entered the next stage.
- D-wall acts as a shield or frame to balance the earth pressure, thereby reducing the possibility of soil collapse and also prevents water seepage during excavation.
- This Launching Shaft is 20 m long and 16 m wide, located at the South side of Anand Vihar underground RRTS station.
Tunnels:
- Two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) will be lowered in this shaft to bore RRTS twin tunnels from Anand Vihar towards Sarai Kale Khan.
- The total drive of these two TBM machines will be around 3 Kms.
- It will be the longest tunnel section between any two stations amongst the available Metro Systems in the country.
- An air ventilation shaft will be constructed in between this large section connecting both sides of tunnels, for ensuring safety of passengers during any emergency.
- Emergency evacuation facility for passengers is also being constructed to facilitate safe exit of passengers from tunnels, in a rare eventuality requiring evacuation.
- Parallelly, construction of north tunnel launching shaft will start soon to bore twin-tunnels of more than 2 kms length from Anand Vihar towards Meerut.
- These tunnels will be of higher diameter as compared to that of Metro systems in the country due to larger rolling stock and higher design speed of 180 Kmph in case of RRTS.
- The internal clear diameter of these tunnels is 6.5 m to reduce the air pressure and discomfort to passengers, due to generation of shock waves in tunnels because to higher speed of these trains.
Construction activities:
- NCRTC team is making best efforts to recover the time lost due to impact of second wave of COVID-19 restrictions on the construction activities and supply chains.
- The construction activities are being carried out while following COVID appropriate behaviour at sites, with due safety protocols in compliance to COVID SOPs.
About Delhi-Meerut RRTS Corridor:
- The Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor is approximately 82 km long corridor with 25 stations, which will cover the distance from Sarai Kale Khan in Delhi to Modipuram in Meerut in about 60 minutes (Currently, it takes around 3 hours to commute from Delhi to Meerut).
- The total project completion cost of Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is about INR 30274 Crore.
- RRTS is a rail based high-speed transit system with a design speed of 180 kmph and an average speed of 100 kmph.
- Once operational, it will be the fastest, most comfortable and safest mode of commuter transport in NCR.
Project Status:
The Project was sanctioned by the Government of India in March 2019. On 8th March 2019, the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India laid the Foundation Stone of India’s first regional rail.
The details of current status of this corridor is provided below:-
- The construction of Delhi–Ghaziabad–Meerut corridor is progressing on schedule.
- Contracts for all the major packages have been awarded and the prototype RRTS trainset is expected to be delivered by Dec’2021.
- Project work for priority section of Duhai to Sahibabad of Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor is progressing on schedule with following developments:
- Construction of civil infrastructure including piles, pile caps, piers, viaduct and station work is on full swing.
- Construction of RSS at Muradnagar has started for feeding the priority section including Duhai Depotc.
- Land for Duhai Depot has already been acquired and depot infrastructure construction has started.
- Contract has been awarded for most of the system packages like Rolling Stock, Signalling & Telecom, Track, Traction and OHE etc.
- Possession of Land allotted by Government of India for stabling yard in Delhi.
Source: NCRTC-Update
