With successful simulation on ground inside the Uppal depot, L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) engineers have begun to put together the first overhead station at Uppal. The station, being developed into a model station, will be ready in a couple of months.
“Roofing has started but it will be fully operational only towards October when final trial runs for the first three-coach train will begin between Nagole and Mettuguda on the viaduct, the first stage of the project,” said Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy.
Coaches are to begin their journey from South Korea in the second week of May and are expected to arrive here in June for trial runs to begin on the ground level tracks.
Station development is quite a significant development for project designers and engineers since it is the first time that the wing and span single pier station is being done.
A curing compound instead of water is being used for curing cement concrete, thereby avoiding spillage on the road below.
“Construction has to be thoroughly checked for structural stability and other design issues before the final go ahead is given. The process check will give necessary confidence to engineers to begin work on other overhead stations in the first stage of the project,” he explained.
There are about 10 girder launchers working at different sites across the three corridors for placing the segments on the top to form the viaduct superstructure on which the rails will be laid.
About 10 segments will be affixed, usually between two piers separated by a distance of about 31 meters or 100 ft.
A total of 28,000 segments, each weighing about 40 tonnes, will be used for the project.
Construction of the viaduct atop the piers raised has also begun on corridor two line (Jubilee Bus Station – Falaknuma) at two different locations of the old Gandhi Hospital site adjacent to the Secunderabad railway station and another one near the passport office in Secunderabad.
Metro rail is being constructed in the corridors of Miyapur-L.B.Nagar, JBS-Falaknuma and Nagole-Shilparama-Raidurg.