Pink Line: Penultimate tunnelling drive completed after TBM Tunga emerges at Nagawara

Bengaluru: Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Tunga on Wednesday emerged at Nagavara, the terminal station of the Pink Line, after successfully boring 936.6 metres from KG Halli over seven months. 

This marks Tunga's fourth and final tunnelling drive for the 21.26-km Pink Line. It is also the 25th of the 26 tunnelling drives for the Pink Line, which will connect Kalena Agrahara and Nagavara with 12 underground and six elevated stations. It is expected to open by December 2025. 

Tunga is the eighth TBM to complete tunnelling for the Pink Line. The previous seven TBMs — Urja, Varada, Avni, Lavi, Vindhya, Vamika and Rudra — finished their work long ago. 

Tunga began its journey from KG Halli on February 3 this year and emerged at the south cut-and-cover shaft of the Nagavara station at 10.30 am on Wednesday. 

With this breakthrough, 20,582.7 metres, or 98%, of the total 20,992 metres of tunnelling have been completed on the Pink Line, according to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). 

Bhadra, the ninth and the final TBM, is currently boring a parallel tunnel from KG Halli to Nagavara. With 529.7 metres more to go, Bhadra is expected to break through at Nagavara by the end of October, a senior BMRCL official told DH. 

Metro to build foot overbridge to ITPL

The BMRCL on Wednesday signed a 30-year agreement with Information Technology Park Limited (ITPL) to construct a foot overbridge connecting the concourse level of the Pattandur Agrahara metro station directly to the ITPL campus, at a cost of Rs 10 crore. 

While the BMRCL will construct the FOB, ITPL will provide the funding. The FOB will enable 50,000 ITPL employees to reach the metro station without needing to cross the road. 

This is the first such agreement on the Baiyappanahalli-
Whitefield metro line. 

The agreement was signed by Kalpana Kataria, Executive Director (C&AM), BMRCL, and Ravibhushan Vadhavkar, City Head, ITPL. 

Kataria requested other corporate companies to consider innovative financing or direct connectivity agreements with the BMRCL to facilitate easier access to metro stations for their employees.