The works for the construction of Corridor 1 of the Kanpur Metro have reached an important milestone with the demolition of the first diaphragm wall in the Moti Jheel-Nayaganj underground section.
The “Nana” TBM was launched in June 2022, after having been lowered down the launch shaft in Bada Chaurha and, after operating for 1025 metres, it reached and broke through the first diaphragm at the Nayaganj station on 6 December. The second TBM, nicknamed “Tatya”, is also progressing rapidly, having already covered 615 metres. From the recovery shaft at Nayaganj, the two TBMs will then be moved to the launch shaft at Chunniganj, to head back to Bada Chaurha and complete the first section in Underground.
The route between Chunniganj and Nayaganj is one of the busiest in the city and the use of state-of-the-art technology has made it possible to dig underground tunnels through the heart of the city safely and without affecting road traffic.
This is also a great achievement for Italferr, which, as the member of a JV with the Spanish engineering company TYPSA, has been involved in the project since 2020 as General Consultant for the design, procurement and supervision of the works relative to the two Metro railway lines of Kanpur and Agra, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, among the biggest industrial cities in North India.
Large-scale urbanisation and rapid population growth have put a strain on Kanpur's urban transport system and so, in 2017, the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) was designed, based on the directives of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). Implementing the CMP meant conducting an analysis of the possible engineering alternatives, resulting in the identification of two main Metro corridors.
The “Priority corridor” from IIT to Moti Jheel, which includes 9 stations in nine of the total 32 km of the Kanpur metro and runs entirely on viaducts, was built in just 25 months at a pace never before seen in India.
In continuation of the Priority corridor, the Underground part is being built in two sections:
- from Moti Jheel to Nayaganj - 4 stations for about 4 km - awarded to JV Gulermak-Sam India and started about 1 year ago;
- from Nayaganj to Transport Nagar - 3 stations for about 3 km - awarded to the Afcons-Sam India Consortium and started about a couple of months ago.
This is the largest contract that Italferr has ever secured in India, with which it confirms its leadership not only in the High Speed sector but also in the international metropolitan public transport sector, becoming a major player in the Indian engineering market, where the FS Group company has already been present for some years with a branch in New Delhi.