China makes its biggest tunnel boring machine for India

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New Delhi: A tunnel boring machine that is so huge that it can cover more than 12 kilometers at a time is manufactured by China, its biggest ever such project, to be exported to India.

And it reportedly took more than one year to build the machine.

“It was built for the express purpose of completing a one-time 12.5-kilometer boring task in India,” China's state-run People's Daily reported.

“China's largest ever double-shield tunnel boring machine (TBM) rolled off the assembly line in Wuhan on April 13, and will soon be exported to India,” the report said.

The TBM, at 9.86 meters in diameter and 150 meters in length, is made by China Railway Science & Industry Group Co.

The machine weighs 2,500 tonnes, and its maximum driving power is 4,200 kilowatts.