RailEnquiry

Another important milestone has been crossed by the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd on Sunday with the casting of 1,000 segments.

According to HMR managing director NVS Reddy, the precast segments will be joined together on top of the pillars to form a viaduct (flyover-like structure) on which two railway tracks (up and down lines) will be laid. The normal distance between two pillars is 31 metres (101 feet) and it will be covered by 11 segments.

Each segment weighs about 35 tonnes and has a deck width of 8.8 metres (29 feet) to facilitate simultaneous movement of two trains in opposite directions. With a requirement of about 330 segments per one kilometre, the first precast 1,000 segments will be sufficient for covering a distance of 3 km. The total requirement for the 72-km-long  metro rail is 28,000 segments.

L&T, which is executing the project, is casting 10 segments a day at its Uppal casting yard. The capacity  will be doubled after establishment of a second casting yard. 

Reddy says erection of the first span between two pillars at Uppal (near Genpact), which was launched by the chief minister last month, has been completed with 11 segments being glued together.

The launching girder will now move forward towards the Uppal Junction. More launching girders are being manufactured at the casting yard for simultaneous erection of segments at different locations on the metro rail corridors.

Construction work is going apace on the Nagole-Mettuguda (stage-1) and Miyapur-SR Nagar (stage-2) sections. So far 244 pillars (152 in Nagole-Mettuguda section and 92 in Miyapur-SR Nagar section) have been built and foundation for 387 piers has been laid. The pillar construction in stage-5 stretch of LB Nagar area also picked up pace, he has claimed.