4 ms·
Got interested, crunched some numbers. A TBM costs like 10 million euros to buy, 5 million euros per month to operate. And move 50 feet a day. So, all combined
by rohit2412 9y ago
Got interested, crunched some numbers.
A TBM costs like 10 million euros to buy, 5 million euros per month to operate. And move 50 feet a day. So, all combined it costs like 14 million dollars per mile to tunnel. But as in Mumbai's case (17 tbm for 33 km!), These are done in parallel for speed and to reduce costs, it's sound 30 million dollars per km. Which is almost the difference for mixed grade Delhi phase 4 and Mumbai's line 3 costs.
TLDR: tunnel boring costs 15 million dollars per km in material/operation costs, rest is probably rails+stations etc.
https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-tunnel-boring-machine-cost https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-a-tunnel-boring-machine-...
https://www.quora.com/How-fast-can-a-tunnel-boring-machine-drill-under-good-conditions-How-does-it-go-that-fast https://www.quora.com/How-fast-can-a-tunnel-boring-machine-d...
- kamaal 9y agoMumbai and Delhi comparisons are pointless. They get whatever funds they ask from the center. At the same time for cities like Bangalore, they have to work with leftovers. People complain the pace of Metro construction is low. But for the money these people get, its already nothing short of a miracle that they are even building this much.
- rohit2412 9y agoThe question isn't Mumbai vs Delhi. It is how costly is tunneling. And I'm just pointing out that in India we are tunneling at around 10-15 million dollars per mile, far cheaper than what Elon musk thinks it costs (1 billion per mile), and what he plans to achieve (100 million dollars per mile). Essentially, the breakdown is complex and different for different geology, labor prices, tunnel sizes etc. Musk's salesmanship of selling byte sized numbers without context is stupid.