“Going underground is no longer the expensive option.”
Interview with Kanwar Abhay Singh, Director, Friends Equipment Heavy Machinery
How do you see demand for tunnelling and boring machinery evolving over the next three to five years? Which categories and segments offer the most growth, and what are the challenges of deploying these machines in Indian conditions?
How do you see demand for tunnelling and boring machinery evolving over the next three to five years? Which categories and segments offer the most growth, and what are the challenges of deploying these machines in Indian conditions?
I expect demand to keep growing strongly, and to spread well beyond the metro systems where most of India’s TBM experience has been built. Cities have run out of surface space. Going underground is no longer the expensive option; it is often the only one.
We have seen this shift first-hand. Since 2016, as CRCHI’s partner, FEHM has supplied TBMs for metro lines in Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai and Patna. We also supplied the 12.19 m machine for the Mumbai Coastal Road, at the time the largest-diameter TBM deployed in India. Five years ago a 12 m machine was a one-off. Today large-diameter road tunnels are being planned as a matter of course.
The segments I see growing fastest:
- Metro rail in Tier-2 cities. Patna is a good example. The next wave is cities that have never built underground before.
- Urban road tunnels. Large-diameter slurry and EPB machines for twin-tube road tunnels under dense cities, like the Orange Gate project in Mumbai.
- High-speed and conventional rail. Long tunnels for high-speed corridors and mountain alignments in the Himalaya and the North-East.
- Hydropower and pumped storage. Hard-rock and shielded TBMs for headrace and tailrace tunnels.
- Water, sewerage and utilities. Smaller-diameter machines and microtunnelling for city infrastructure.
Alongside new machines, two categories will grow quickly: TBM refurbishment and the back-up ecosystem – cutters, segment moulds, gantry cranes, conveyors, tunnel vehicles and consumables.
The challenges are real. Indian geology changes sharply over short distances. A single drive can move from soft alluvium to boulders to hard rock, often with a high water table, as in Mumbai and Chennai.
In the Himalaya you face young, fractured, squeezing rock. Urban drives run at shallow cover under old buildings and heritage structures, so settlement control
is critical. Then there is logistics: moving a 2,800-tonne machine through city streets and staging it in a tight shaft. Finally, there is a shortage of trained operators and maintenance technicians, and long lead times for imported spares. Choosing the right machine type for the geology, and keeping it running, matters more than the machine itself.
How is the tunnelling and boring machinery segment evolving in terms of machine design, automation, precision, safety and operational efficiency?
The biggest change is that a TBM is no longer just a cutting machine. It is a data-driven underground factory, and the industry now designs it that way.
- Design: Machines are getting bigger and more versatile. Diameters above 12 m are now routine for road tunnels. Multi-mode and variable-density machines can switch between EPB and slurry modes within a fraction of the time what it used to. That matters enormously in India, where ground conditions change so quickly.
- Automation: Segment erection, grouting and muck handling are increasingly automated. Robotic cutter-changing systems are entering service. Advance rates and segment-ring quality now depend less on individual operator skill.
- Precision: Laser and gyroscopic guidance systems hold alignment to within millimetres. Real-time monitoring of face pressure, torque and thrust lets crews control settlement under sensitive structures. The Mumbai Coastal Road machine set a world record of 456.72 m excavated in a single month in August 2022. That came from careful engineering and close teamwork between CRCHI, L&T and our team, not from speed alone.
- Safety: The industry is working to take people out of the most dangerous tasks. Cutters that can be changed at atmospheric pressure reduce hyperbaric interventions. Gas detection, fire suppression and refuge chambers are now standard expectations on serious projects.
- Efficiency: Sensors on the cutterhead and drive systems feed predictive maintenance. Wear is spotted before it causes a stoppage, and remote diagnostics let OEM engineers support a site from anywhere. Machines are also designed for a second life. FEHM refurbished the 12.20 m Coastal Road TBM and relaunched it for the Orange Gate project. It is the largest-diameter refurbished TBM in India, and to our knowledge we are the only non-OEM to have refurbished slurry TBM here.
How can domestic manufacturing, localisation and after-sales support help improve cost competitiveness and reduce dependence on imported equipment?
I would frame it slightly differently. The goal should not be to replace global technology, but to build more of the value chain in India around it. A TBM is a complex system refined over decades by a handful of specialist manufacturers worldwide. India benefits from that experience. What we can do is make sure that more of the cost, the work and the knowledge stay here.
I see three practical levers.
- Localising what can be made well locally: Segment moulds, gantry cranes, belt conveyors, tunnel vehicles, electrical cables, structural back-up gantries and consumables such as lubricants and soil-conditioning chemicals can all be sourced or fabricated in India. Over time, local assembly of major machines in partnership with OEMs is a natural next step. This lowers project cost and cuts lead times without compromising the core technology.
- After-sales support close to the site: A TBM earns money only while it is boring. A day lost waiting for a cutter or a seal costs far more than the part. Local stocks of cutters, scrapers, tail-seal brushes and critical spares, plus trained Indian technicians on call, make the biggest difference to a contractor's real cost. We are developing a service and stock yard at Panvel for exactly this reason.
- Refurbishment & redeployment: A well-refurbished TBM can complete several drives. Refurbishing machines in India, as we did with the Coastal Road TBM for Orange Gate, brings down capital cost per kilometre and builds deep local engineering skills.
The best model, in my view, is a long-term partnership. Global OEMs bring design and core technology. Indian partners bring local manufacturing, service, spares and people who understand Indian ground and Indian projects. That combination gives contractors competitive pricing, faster delivery and a more resilient supply chain. It also builds the base of skills from which deeper indigenous manufacturing can grow over time.
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