Metro running muck trains to clear newly-built tunnels

New Delhi, Aug 10 (UNI) The Delhi Metro has started running muck trains 24 hours a day in the newly-built tunnels at INA, Jor Bagh, Hauz Khas and Saket to clear them of the waste generated by the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs).

A press release issued here today said two muck cars and a segment trolley pulled by a locomotive run 24 hours a day in the underground tunnels at 10 kilometres per hour and carry about 480 cubic metres of muck everyday.

Each small muck train has a length of about 5.3 metres and a breadth of 1.3 metres and runs on 0.9 metre long tracks, the release said.

The muck trains follow the TBMs, when they move ahead boring the tunnel. A conveyor connected to the centre of the cutter head of the TBM delivers the muck to these trains.

In the first phase of Metro construction, the muck trains were run by diesel locomotives, but for the second phase, battery run locos, imported from Hong Kong, are being used as these are more environment friendly, it added.

The drivers of these trains are given special training for 15 days inside the tunnels so that they can get acquainted with the working environment and the new trains undergo a trial run on a temporary 100 metre long track.

Currently, many experienced Thai muck train drivers are driving these trains on the Delhi Metro construction sites. About eleven muck trains are working round the clock on the underground section of the Central Secretariat--Gurgaon corridor.

Some more muck trains are expected soon on the Airport Express Link and the Central Secretariat--Badarpur section when the TBMs start functioning there, it said.

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