Focus in the recent past has been on commissioning HiTec City line from Ameerpet. While it is likely to be thrown open to public this month, what is happening on the remaining major route, the yet-to-be-opened Corridor Two of the Hyderabad Metro Rail?
This ‘Green Line’ connecting Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) and Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) is about 10 km. Five more kilometres of the route, which would have taken the metro rail till Falaknuma through the old city, has been put on hold due to opposition from the Majlis.
A few days ago, L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) completed the piers and entire overhead viaduct on the route till the MGBS.
“We have had to overcome several challenges to bring construction to this stage from property acquisition, providing right of way and a host of other issues. But, the line can be opened only towards December because a lot of work has to be done on signalling and other technical things,” say senior metro officials.
That’s a good 10 months away when L&TMRH is expected to shift its men and machinery towards this side once Corridor Three work is done in all respects from the Raidurg side too.
In the coming months, it will be working on stringing electric cables, track laying, signalling works and overhead stations en route on Corridor Two.
Stations are in various stages of completion like JBS (nearly 60 ft high), Secunderabad West, Gandhi Hospital, Musheerabad, RTC Crossroads, Chikkadpally, Narayanaguda and Sultan Bazar. In fact, Corridor Two was always beset with issues like demand for alignment change and local protest at Sultan Bazar and University College of Women.
The most tangled stretch is Badechowdi-Sultan Bazar which is like a war zone now with building demolitions under way till Andhra Bank building. After torturous negotiations with protesting traders for nearly two years, the work got going on the 500-metre stretch when an agreement to crunch road space to 65 ft was made.
Nevertheless, there have been engineering feats on this route too — JBS station is built on high pillars as the corridor climbs over Corridor Three — Nagole to HiTec City/Raidurg at a height of 66 ft with an extended span of 180 ft. It rises 31 ft above the flyover and more than 20 ft of the existing metro line! Piers are built till the Secunderabad Club entrance to allow reversal of trains while Parade Grounds station of Corridor-3 is connected through a 100-metre skywalk.
Second steel pre-fab bridge on the Bhoiguda side to leap across railway track beneath to allow double-decker trains, nearly 80 ft viaduct to cross over the Narayanaguda flyover and 121 ft span junction at Sultan Bazar are all complex works done with traffic moving below, explain senior engineers. Another eye-catching construction is at Rangmahal where Corridor Two has been built over Corridor One — L.B. Nagar to Miyapur for about 200 metres.
However, what the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) and L&TMRH do not want to admit openly is that the project badly needs fund infusion for both upper deck and ground level works for faster progress. And, after sinking in more than ₹16,000 crore, the latter has been seeking Government help, which has not been forthcoming.
