India's longest rail tunnel driven by German boring machines -- Shiv, Shakti

New Delhi: One of the most challenging projects in the Himalayas, India’s longest rail tunnel under construction in Uttarakhand recently achieved a breakthrough driven by two German-made tunnel boring machines, named Shiv and Shakti after Hindu deities -- inspired by the spiritual heritage of the state called 'Deevbhoomi' (the land of Gods).

The Devprayag-Janasu are twin tunnels running parallel to each other at a 25-metre distance. One of the 14.57-km tunnels on the 125-km Rishikesh-Karanprayag Rail Link Project that achieved a breakthrough on April 16 was operated by the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) named Shakti.

The TBM Shiv is all set to achieve a breakthrough in the second tunnel in June this year, officials at the construction site said.

Officials involved in the project said that the use of TBM for the first time in a mountainous rail project needed not only huge effort and detailed planning but also a sense of divine favour and in this context, naming the TBMs after deities was a way to invoke these blessings for the success of the project.

Infrastructure firm Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which constructed the tunnel, had earlier, while sharing the challenges faced during the construction, said that there were moments when it seemed the tunnel might collapse and jeopardise the whole project but then survived with their meticulous efforts and work.

Construction experts said that naming a tunnel boring machine is a general practice across all big infrastructure projects, and often, a lot of thoughts go into it so that the name can resonate well with the working atmosphere of the project.

In Hinduism, Lord Shiv is worshipped as the supreme being and Shakti, personified as the wife of Shiv, Parvati, is associated with divine feminine power.

"It's quite rare to see tunnel boring machines named with distinctly male and female names. Typically, TBMs are traditionally given female names," a construction expert said without specifying any reason.

Officials of L&T said that at the time of placing orders for two TBMs to the German company, Herrenknecht AG, they spent a good while of time giving a meaningful name to them.

"We involved senior officials and all staff at the working site to come up with ideas for naming two TBMs and a lot of suggestions came in four days before we finalised the two names after Indian deities Shiva and Shakti," Rakesh Arora, Project Director of the tunnel, told PTI.

Arora said that since Uttarakhand is known as "Devbhoomi" (the land of Gods) due to the presence of several Hindu pilgrimage sites, sacred temples and rivers, a lot of suggestions came surrounding these topics.

"Initially, an idea was floated by some members to name them after two sacred rivers -- Alaknanda and Bhagirathi -- as they flow down from the neighbouring areas of the tunnel. Some people also suggested calling them Badri and Kedar as the two most revered shrines here, Badrinath and Kedarnath, are being visited by millions of devotees," Arora said.

He recollected that the names that struck a chord with everyone were Shiva and Shakti, suggested by the then Chief Project Manager of Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), Himanshu Badauni.

"I think he rightly suggested to name them after the two supreme powers - Shiv, which represents the divine masculine principle and Shakti, which symbolises the feminine principle," Arora said, adding that these names resonated well with the place and the kind of work that they had undertaken.

Before this project, rail tunnels were built using the conventional drill and blast method. Even for non-railway projects such as hydroelectricity projects, TBM has been used in the Himalayas, but they had a small diameter of around 5 meters and TBM, being used in the Rishikesh-Karanprayag rail line, has a diameter of 9.1 meters, officials said.

Arora said that carrying two TBMs, each weighing 1900 metric tons, from Mundra port in Gujarat to Devprayag in Uttarakhand was also a mammoth logistical exercise.

"Each TBM has two overdimensional and overweight consignments. The main drive with 6340 mm diameter and 168 mt weight and the central piece of the cutter head with 5500 mm width and 99 mt weight needed substantial efforts to manage the logistics," he said.

During the breakthrough event on April 16 in the presence of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and other railway and state officials, Pradeep Gaur, Chairman and Managing Director, RVNL, also shared information about German company Herrenknecht's practice that it follows while producing TBMs.

"The company assigns sequential production numbers to each TBM that they manufacture. The two TBMs that were purchased for the project were numbered 1309 and 1310," Gaur said.