Delhi Metro engineers to hone their tunnelling skills in Kuala Lumpur

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has tied up with the Tunnel Training Academy in Kuala Lumpur to train its engineers in the latest techniques and skills needed for doing underground tunnelling works using Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM).

This training is aimed at increasing the levels of skills of the DMRC engineers in Underground Tunnelling, as about 53 km of the total length of 143 km of Delhi Metro Phase 3 is being constructed underground and 35 TBMs (Tunnel Boring Machines) are going to be used to achieve this target, according to Mangu Singh, MD, DMRC.

Such intensive tunnelling activity will require specialised engineering skills in different aspects of the operations of the Tunnel boring Machines such as Cutting Wheel Erection, Erection simulators for ring building, Gap filling/grouting, Short creting technology etc, which are an essential part of the TBM operations.

The metro engineers will thus be able to get hands on training in a classroom underground tunnel environment using audio-visual 3-dimensional tools to erect tunnelling segments using wireless controls in the Malaysian Academy. In addition they will be able to construct Tunnel Archs using Concreting (Shotcrete) in the training laboratories.

The trainee's will also be exposed to working TBM models and the use of cutting tools such as Disk Cutter and Cutting Knives which are used to cut through soil and rocks encountered by the TBMs during underground tunnelling operations. As part of the module, emphasis will be given upon ensuring that metro engineers make sure that there is no movement and surface settlement in the building above under which metro tunnelling takes place.

The Tunnel Training Academy established in Kualalumpur is unique as the academy is probably one of the few such institutions in the world which creates a simulated underground environment in which a trainee actually gets a feel of working inside a Tunnel Boring machine according to P. K. Garg, General Manager (Strategic Planning), DMRC who recently visited Kualalumpur to firm up DMRC's training schedule for its engineers.

The first batch of 10 Delhi Metro engineers will be sent for training next month to Kualalumpur, and this training will help DMRC in increasing its internal expertise in Underground Tunnelling engineering. The DMRC is planning to establish its own such tunnel training academy in Delhi in the future.

The Tunnel Training Academy in Kualalumpur was established in December 2011 and has trained 508 engineers so far.

1. Each TBM weighs about 450 tons and is over 60 to 80 meter in length and training will thus be given on proper lifting and lowering of the TBMs at metro work sites.

2. The deepest point of Tunneling in Phase III will be 29 meters deep as the tunnel will be made under the existing operational HauzKhas metro station.