In its prolonged and agonising journey towards completion, the road over bridge (RoB) near Hi-tec City MMTS station has finally crossed a major hurdle. The task of launching 32 girders across railway tracks was completed on Tuesday evening. Work on either side of the tracks is almost complete, and the delay pertained to the launching of girders across the tracks as it entailed stopping, delaying and diverting some trains.
The South Central Railway (SCR) gave the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) a total of 18 time blocks, each for 150 minutes to be availed twice a week. For the girders, six time blocks were given, but HMDA officials said that the work was over in four blocks.
“The girder launch has been a major task, and we could complete it safely,” said a relieved official. Each of the 32 girders weighed 25 tonnes, and, including bracings, a total of 920 tonnes was launched on the railway portion to facilitate further work on the project. Five heavy cranes, including one stand-by, were deployed for the task and on Tuesday evening, the SCR gave an additional 45 minutes as grace period to get it done.
Now, work pertaining to bracings, riveting and laying reinforcement bars for concrete work will be taken up. A fortnight after that, finishing work will start, and officials will look at the possibility of opening the Rs. 68-crore facility for vehicles by Ugadi. On the Spinal Road connecting the Kukatpally side with Madhapur, the RoB has been designed with a length of 910 metres and width of 21.5 metres and is equipped with a four-lane divided carriageway.
