en.Wedoany.com Reported - Indian Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will launch the underground tunnel boring operation on Sunday for the Vikhroli to Bandra Kurla Complex station section of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor. This marks the first use of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) in India's high-speed rail project. Two custom-made German TBMs were imported from China in March 2026 and are owned by Afcons Infrastructure Limited (Afcons). The company is constructing a 20.37 km tunnel, including a 7 km undersea section, which will be built approximately 65 meters underground.

An official from the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) stated that the Railway Minister will press a button to start a TBM located 56.6 meters underground at Vikhroli. The first TBM will bore from Vikhroli to BKC station, a distance of approximately 5.8 km. The second TBM is being assembled at Sawli and is expected to be ready within a week; it will excavate the 9.7 km section from Sawli to Vikhroli, including the 7 km undersea segment.

According to a senior railway expert, each TBM is expected to bore approximately 300 meters of tunnel per month; with both machines operating simultaneously, about 600 meters of excavation will be completed monthly. The contract section runs from BKC to Shilphata, covering a total length of 20.37 km. Of this, 15.4 km between BKC and Sawli will be excavated using TBMs, while the remaining 4.8 km from Sawli to Shilphata has already been completed using the drill-and-blast method. The tunnel features a single-tube structure capable of accommodating double tracks for bidirectional traffic.

To facilitate construction, shafts approximately 56 meters and 39 meters deep have been built at Vikhroli and Sawli, respectively. The project has also constructed 39 equipment rooms at 37 locations along the tunnel alignment. These TBMs are among the largest and most expensive ever deployed in India, with each cutterhead measuring 13.6 meters in diameter. In comparison, TBMs used in urban metro projects typically have cutterhead diameters of 5 to 6 meters.