L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad is mulling to begin soil testing and barricading for Corridor Two - Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma.
The metro line passes through a congested old city and the concessionaire is conscious of the challenges that lie ahead. For instance, they have to check for underground utilities such as pipelines, water/sewer lines, cables, etc. as it was difficult to get their mapping, said L&TMRH Chief Executive and Managing Director V.B. Gadgil on Friday.
He was talking to presspersons at the Uppal pre-cast yard, which is touted to be the biggest in the country, spread where half of the 28,000 segments which form the viaduct fixed atop the piers are to be made. Remaining half of the pre-cast segments are to be produced at another yard coming up in Balanagar.
Sixty-five segments are ready and the yard capacity is 450 a month. Three months of stock would be stored here. Mr. Gadgil expects the process of mounting the segments to begin in two to three months at stage one of the project between Nagole and Mettuguda where 22 piers have come up. The section is part of Corridor Three: Nagole-Shilparamam. Construction in old city has been scheduled for the last stage or the sixth one. Pier work is also going on for stage two between Miyapur to S.R. Nagar forming part of Corridor One: Miyapur to L.B. Nagar. “We are on the move and increasing our capacity day by day. We expect to launch rail operations of stage one in three years time and the entire project in five years,” affirmed Mr. Gadgil. Railway rolling stock vendors are to be chosen from among the global firms Bombardier, Hyundai Rotterdam, CAF (Spain) and CSR (China) by next month-end and this contract is likely to be between Rs.1,500 crore and Rs.1,700 crore. Technical consultations have been completed and financial negotiations are to commence. Land acquisition issues have been more or less sorted out while work in the Miyapur depot is to begin in 10 days. The MD explained that project cost was dynamic because of the dollar-rupee issue. He expects things to be under control once negotiations are conducted successfully. with the vendors, mechanisation, indigenisation and faster rate of construction.
