The 31-km ₹6,250-crore Hyderabad Airport Express Metro will be built 2 km along the central median from Raidurg to the Biodiversity Park; about 3 km over the Roda Mistry College lane and central median of Khajaguda road; and another 5 km along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) service road from Nanakramguda Junction till Telangana State Police Academy junction.
For about 17-odd km, it will be built to the left of the ORR till the Shamshabad Junction from where the metro alignment will enter the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) towards the right. The metro line will be brought down to traverse on the ground for a kilometre before going under for about 2.5 km prior to reaching the terminal underground station.
The twin flyovers soon after the Raidurg station will be crossed with the overhead line towering a good 22 metres above the ground or at a height of about 72 feet. Incidentally, it will help cross over a hillock after the Biodiversity Park and immediately after the Rajendranagar toll gate, the metro will encounter a second one known as Rajendranagar hillock.
Hyderabad Airport Metro Line (HAML) officials led by Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy had inspected the site on Wednesday as it was proving to be another engineering challenge with the piers and viaduct to be built amid the hard rock with undulating terrain of steep heights and valleys for about 1.3 km
“The metro viaduct will be built at a height of 15 metres almost on the edge of the hillock adjacent to ORR, in the absence of a service road there. We will have a combination of piers to be built upto 10 metres or on stubs (low height piers) nearer to the surface to minimise rock cutting. We will stabilise the boulders with protective barriers to prevent rollovers,” explained Mr. Reddy.
Crossdrains are to be built with sufficient carrying capacity at the valley points to allow the rain water flow into the ORR drainage system for the temporary road of upto 300 metres on the hillock to facilitate construction of the piers and viaduct. Chief project manager B Anand Mohan, General Manager M Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Superintending Engineer Y Sayapa Reddy, Deputy chief engineer (Railway) J.N. Gupta and other senior officers participated in the inspection.
