The Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) viaduct line will not only be avoiding the Secunderabad railway station’s skyline but will also be built far higher than originally envisaged when crossing the railway tracks.
Metro line across the three corridors will have eight railway track crossings of which four are near the railway station — Alugaddabhavi, Chilkalguda, Oliphant Bridge and Bhoiguda. Other railway crossings are at Bharatnagar, Lakdikapul, Malakpet and Begumpet.
With the railway station slated for a major revamp, the metro rail authorities have been forced to take a slight detour of corridor two line - Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma. Instead of flying directly on the station, the line will now take a curve into the old Gandhi Hospital land and will be built over the Bhoiguda road under bridge.
“The railway authorities wanted us to avoid taking the viaduct over the station because of the expansion plans where provision for double-decker trains movement is being made.
Since the underground option is ruled out, we have jointly discussed various options before deciding to take the line across the Bhoiguda side through the old Gandhi hospital land,” explains HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy.
The distance will increase by 300 metres but in the overall scheme of things during the construction stage, there are bound to be small changes, he insists.
Another metro line of Corridor three — Nagole to Raidurg, will be crossing the Oliphant Bridge and will be about a kilometre away from Corridor Two line.
Overhead metro stations will be coming up on the old hospital land (Corridor Two) and near Hotel Ramakrishna (Corridor Three).
Metro line viaducts will be built at a height of eight metres to 22 metres when crossing railway tracks as the elevated stations will have concourse at 5.5 metres height and platforms at 11-12 metres height, he says.
Skywalk
HMR and GHMC also have a grand plan of jointly constructing a skywalk connecting both the lines and also to the Secunderabad railway station at an estimated cost of Rs. 7.2 crore to reduce congestion on the station road. It also has eight bus stops from Rathifile till Secunderabad Gurudwara.
“We also plan to have four skywalks in between connecting to the platforms and bus stops between the main entrance and the Rathifile bus stop,” he says.
The skywalk is to be built on the central median with cantilever support on both sides of the road.
It will be of 450 metres length and four metres wide with the secondary skywalks being 2.5 metres wide with staircases and escalators.
