Tughlakabad-Aerocity Metro Corridor Achieves Major Milestone

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has achieved a major milestone with a successful tunnel breakthrough at the Tughlakabad Railway Colony site, part of the Tughlakabad–Aerocity corridor under Phase-4 of the metro expansion.

The breakthrough was achieved using a 91-metre-long Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), which constructed a 792-metre-long tunnel at an average depth of 18 metres. The tunnel comprises 559 concrete rings, each with an inner diameter of 5.8 metres. Civil works were executed by Afcons Infrastructure, and the event was attended by Naveen Gulati, Member (Infrastructure), Railway Board, along with senior DMRC officials.

Two parallel tunnels are being constructed between Tughlakabad and Tughlakabad Railway Colony stations to accommodate up and down train movement. The project uses the Earth Pressure Balancing Method (EPBM), with precast segments produced at DMRC’s mechanised facility in Mundka and steam-cured for early strength.

Despite tunnelling under densely built-up areas, DMRC confirmed that no ground settlement occurred, thanks to real-time ground movement monitoring using sensors.

The Aerocity–Tughlakabad corridor includes 19.343 km of underground track, forming part of the 40.109 km approved under Phase-4. DMRC continues to deploy TBMs to minimise surface disruption—a method successfully used since Phase-1 and extensively in Phase-3.

News by Rahul Yelligetti.