Underground stretches vital for Metro success
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) is gearing up for a grand launch of its Reach-1 (Baiyappanahalli-MG Road) — a teaser of a service — on Thursday.
But completion of its underground section might just prove vital to the project to see success on the whole.
With the launch nearing, Deccan Herald takes a look at the progress made on this stretch. On the 4.8-km East-West Corridor, the BMRCL said: “Ninety-eight per cent of the base slab and wall up to the null point is completed on the East Ramp and 65 per cent of excavation in cut-and-cover portion has been completed.”
Sources in the BMRCL said the underground section was important as it was between the reaches and acted as a connection to various reaches. At the Cubbon Park Station (Minsk Square) 299 soldier piles, out of the required 432 at the station box, are completed and 56,354 cubic metres of soil excavated for the station box.
At the Vidhana Soudha station, all the 339 soldier piles are completed and 4,584 cubic metres of rock excavated. The Corporation has also begun excavation for the station at Visvesvaraya Station (Central College) and all solider piles are completed at the Central Station.
The North-South corridor (4 km) designs are in progress and three earth pressure balanced machines have been ordered -- one from Seli, Italy, and two from Herrenknecht, China. They are expected to be received in Bangalore by mid-2012.
