Pune Metro TBMs ready as project funding agreed 05 Sep 2019

Factory acceptance of the first of three Terratec 6.6m diameter EPBs for the Pune Metro in India is imminent and follows a major funding milestone for the project signed off by the European Investment Bank. The two other Terratec TBMs for the project are currently being manufactured at the company assembly plant in Nansha district, Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, China, reported Terratec to TunnelTalk.

First TBM ready for Pune Metro

With two lines in development, the project is constructing a total 31.3km network with 30 stations. The budget for the complete project is almost €1.8 billion (US$1.9 billion). A major development for the project is agreement by the European Investment Bank of a loan of €600 million (US$657 million). A third of the loan has been released to the developer, Maharashtra Metro Rail Corporation, which is a JV between the India Central Government and the State Government of Maharashtra. Additional funding of €245 million (US$268 million) is being supplied by the French Development Agency.

The underground alignment is on the north-south Line 1. The 16.6km route includes 14 stations between Pimpri-Chinchwad and Swargate, with about 30% running underground.

Contractor for the 5km underground portion is the JV of Gulermak of Turkey and Tata Projects of India, which was awarded two tunnelling lots in December 2018 and February 2019. Four TBMs, supplied by Terratec, were envisaged originally for the two underground contracts but the number has been reduced to three, Terratec informed TunnelTalk. The Gulermak/Tata JV worked on the metro project in Lucknow, a project also with EIB funding support.

The underground section of the twin-tube route runs north to south from Shivaji Nagar to Swargate and includes a total of five stations. The two contracts split the underground work into the:

• North lot that includes design and construction of the Shivaji Nagar and Civil Court underground Stations plus tunnels between Agricultural College and the north end of Budhwar Peth Station (Fig 1) and the
• South lot that involves design and construction of underground stations at Budhwar Peth, Mandai and Swargate, as well as the remaining twin tube tunnels.

Local contractor Kumar Infraprojects was awarded a works package in mid-2018 to perform shaft access works at Agricultural College and Swargate, where it will also construct the multimodal transportation hub on top of the underground station built by the Gulermak-Tata JV. Consultancy services to the client for Line 1 are provided by Systra, AECOM, EGIS and RITES. Construction began in late 2016 and is planned to be completed in 2021-22.