The tunnelling work for the country's first Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) has moved into the next phase with the construction of a tunnel of around 1.5 km length from Anand Vihar to New Ashok Nagar, according to an official statement.

The National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is implementing India's first Regional Rapid Transit System between Delhi and Meerut. The Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut corridor is 82 km long, of which 14 km is in Delhi. The Delhi section has four stations: Jangpura, Sarai Kale Khan, New Ashok Nagar and Anand Vihar, with only the Anand Vihar station being underground.

Two 'Sudarshan' tunnel boring machines are in operation to construct two three-km-long parallel tunnels from Anand Vihar station to New Ashok Nagar. The first Sudarshan 4.1 has already bored 1.5 km tunnel, while the second Sudarshan 4.2 has also constructed about 1km of tunnel so far.

To retrieve these Sudarshan machines after the completion of the construction of the tunnels, a retrieving shaft has been built near the New Ashok Nagar station, from where the corridor gets elevated.

The tunnel segments are being manufactured at NCRTC's casting yard. Due to the large rolling stock and a high design speed of 180 mph, the width of RRTS tunnels is being constructed as 6.5 metre diameter, the statement said.

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