Overview

• Media profiles detail how TBM operators Baljinder Singh and Ram Avtar Singh Rana forced through a landslide about 3.5 km inside the mountain by running the machine at full power for days.
• The 14.57 km upline tunnel was finished on April 16, 2025, 12 days ahead of schedule, using a German-made TBM named Shakti operated almost continuously.
• A parallel 13.09 km downline tunnel achieved a major breakthrough on June 29, 2025, after crews reported advancing 790 metres in 31 days using a TBM named Shiv.
• Larsen & Toubro says TBMs were deployed here for a Himalayan railway for the first time, complementing drill-and-blast methods across complex geology.
• Project officials cite roughly 30 km of total tunnelling for the 125-km link, with about 70 percent executed by TBMs and the remainder by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method.