India's first underwater rail tunnel
128India's first underwater rail tunnel
The construction of first underwater rail tunnel is complete and the most amazing part of it is that it happened ahead of the schedule. The deadline was July 2017.
The companies responsible for digging the country's first tunnel under the Hooghly River for establishing metro link between Howrah and Kolkata are Afcons Transtonnelstroy and Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd.
About the project:
The total length of the entire metro project is 16.6 km long, out of which 10.8 km runs under the ground. Of this 10.8 km, 502 metres is under the water
The metro rail project connects Howrah to the west and Salt Lake to the east
Afcons Transtonnelstroy is responsible for building the project while KMRCL will implement it
The stretch of 16.6 km will have 12 stations, six of which will be under the ground, while the remaining six metro stations will be on elevated tracks
The final commissioning of the project is scheduled by December 2019, following which it will be operational
The total project cost is USD 750 million
Machine used for digging the underwater tunnel:
Rachna, a giant tunnel-boring machine (TBM), was deployed to dig the underwater tunnel that runs a length of 502 metres under the river.
The machine was brought from Herrenknecht AG plant in Schwanau, Germany.