While shuttering arrangement for the first pillar (pier) of the Hyderabad Metro Rail is in progress on the Nagole-Mettuguda section by the Larsen & Toubro Metro Rail Hyderabad Limited, foundations are also being readied for three more piers between Nagole-Uppal.
Hectic efforts are being made to complete as much work as possible on the pier foundations before the onset of the monsoon and to make up for the recent delays. There will be 305 piers between Nagole-Mettuguda in the eight kilometres of the first stage of the project which will be operational in two years.
A formal religious ceremony indicating the commencement of work would be held on April 26 (Thursday) for the piers as well as for the construction of train maintenance, repair workshops, stabling yards at the Uppal depot.
HMR Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy said on Sunday that the casting yard – 60 acres of leased land adjacent to the Uppal depot - has been readied so as to begin casting of the segments. Each segment of about 30 ft by 10 ft and weighing about 35 tons would be required for the erection of the metro rail viaduct for all three corridors spanning 71.16 km.
About 10 segments would be fixed normally between two piers separated by a distance of about 31 metres or 100 ft. A total of 28,000 segments are to be used for the project.
Chief Secretary Pankaj Dwivedi has also called for a meeting of the special task force of senior officials – departmental heads of various government bodies and L&TMRH MD V.B. Gadgil on April 25 (Wednesday) for the purpose.
Mr. Reddy sought to assure that work at the 104-acre Miyapur depot too has been put on a fast track such as the loose soil excavation and consolidation of earth by filling up in layers. The elevated metro rail is being built across three corridors – L.B. Nagar to Miyapur (Line one), Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma (Line two) and Shilparamam to Nagole (Line three).
