Chennai Metro’s ‘Kaveri‘ tunnel boring machine crosses Adyar riverbed

Chennai Metro Rail's 'Kaveri' TBM crosses Adyar riverbed, connecting Adyar to city via Phase II Project tunnel.

Three months after ‘Kaveri’, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) deployed by Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), began tunnelling beneath the Adyar, it has crossed the riverbed and is on will arrive at the site of the Adyar Junction Metro station soon.

A few years down the line, this tunnel will help commuters travel between Adyar and many other parts of the city via Metro Rail. This tunnel is part of corridor 3 of the Phase II Project, which runs from Madhavaram to SIPCOT.

When it comes to CMRL’s Phase II Project, which will run for 116 km and have stops at over 100 locations in the city, ‘Kaveri’ is the first TBM to have tunnelled beneath a river. However, this is not the first time that something like this has been done as CMRL had laid tunnels under the Cooum between Government Estate and Chennai Central Metro stations in the Phase I Project.

According to CMRL officials, the TBM will reach the site of the Adyar Junction Metro station soon. The machine, which started its drive at Greenways Road, will ultimately drill a distance of 1.2 km to reach Adyar junction. “There is another TBM called ‘Adyar’, which is behind the ‘Kaveri’. The second one has crossed half of the Adyar and will arrive at the site of the Adyar Junction Metro station in another four months,” an official said.

Officials said it was quite difficult to bore under the river, and the machines dug through a combination of sandy and clayey soil conditions. In this stretch, between Greenways Road and Adyar junction, CMRL plans to lay the track at a depth of about 18 m.

Simultaneously, the Adyar Junction Metro station also is being built and will be completed within two years.