Tunnelling towards Sampige Road-Majestic stretch of Bengaluru metro yet to take off

BENGALURU: The tunnel boring machine Godavari now has a new cutter head but it may take about a month for the machine to actually start its work on the Sampige Road-Majestic stretch on the 24.20-km north-south corridor.

Godavari broke down about a year ago after it encountered hard rocks. Last week, the machine got a new set of cutters which the BMRCL imported from Italy. Although the parts came in April, a lot of digging had to be done to remove the old cutter. Now, the dug-up area needs to be filled up, which will take at least another month, say project engineers.

If everything goes well, Godavari may complete tunnelling by November end. After tunnels are ready , tracks and the third line are laid. It may take another four months for tunnels to be ready for trial runs.

The other machine, deployed to drill the parallel tunnel on the same stretch, has resumed its work after a 10-week break owing to technical issues.

In this background, chief minister Siddaramaiah will have to again revise his deadline for the completion of phase I. In May , he had said the government will open the entire 42-km metro project by March 2016.