Is it TBM Failure in Indian Hydro/ Himalaya?

TBM (Tunnel boring Machine) are playing a huge part in tunneling from a very long time. But in India, it was not so favorite especially in hydro projects due to unfavorable & surprising rock conditions. Nevertheless we all need to understand TBM is not a self-made or self-operated, which could bore itself whatever came to its way.

Very first thing that require in any kind of tunneling method is primary & geological study, which not excluding in TBM Tunneling too. No surprise if we found any study void in the geological study while TBMs were designed to the projects it supposed to use.

For TBM Tunneling we require to have a strong & dedicated mindset about the inputs we are going to use for TBM design, & accept our previous mistakes instead of blaming TBM for such failures.

               TBM (Tunnel Boring MACHINE), No there is no typing or keyboard mistake while typing the word “Machine”, I would like to give that word a bit more attention such as other machines, we were using in tunneling or any other work. Do we stop use any machine which fails while work, I don’t suppose we do, Instead we (the manufacturer) & the client as well start working to keep it update & more advance before we use it next time. OR we try to repair on basis of experience.

Than why we can’t have the same point of view for TBM in hydro projects. We have thousands (May be more) experts working in Himalaya from decades. Who can actually teaches us about how rock is going to react in which case. Yes it might be expansive, it might take a bit time is start, but it require the intension first.

TBMs will work as they designed to work, and they designed by us, by the humans who have experience of tunneling before.

Tunneling is never ending process for learning, & we might never sure what we are going to bore, but we need to take a step ahead for make to tunnels faster.

TBMs can be one of the best way of tunneling but only when we fulfill two basic requirements, first don’t make it god let it be a Machine only, second a clear mindset about yes we can bore Himalayas by TBMs.

You all might have huge experience, but in my very small and few tunneling career, my personnel thinking says, TBM IS JUST A MAN OPERATED/DESIGNED MACHINE, & When it fails, it’s not a TBM Failure, it’s clear the failure of the engineers who are operating the machine/ designers who designed & the management who supposed to look after it.