The Chief Minister appreciated that the works are going on as per schedule and the rail is likely to be operated on trail basis from July 2014. He also unveiled a plaque and laid the foundation stone for Radial Road No 22 at the Metro Rail’s Uppal depot.

The launch ceremony was already delayed. Earlier, the Chief Minsiter had tried to set it up with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh twice, but it did not materialise as the PM’s programmes were cancelled at the last minute. The launch ceremony also coincides with Kiran Kumar Reddy’s completion of two years in office.

Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited managing director NVS Reddy said precast segmental construction (PSC) method would be used to lay the entire 72-km-long metro rail viaduct in order to minimise the usage of the road space and inconvenience to road users during construction phase.

As of now, 900 PSC segments, each 3 metres long and weighing 34 tonnes, are stacked at the precast yard at Uppal. On an average, there will be about 10 segments to cover a span of 103 ft between two pillars.

Each box-type iron girder will be 112 feet long and 300- tonne heavy. Two hydraulic cranes will be used to hoist it on top of two pillars. The viaduct segments will be mechanically lifted and slung to the girders and moved to their respective positions with the help of tackles and hanger bars. The segments will then be matched to fit into each other to check the correctness of the viaduct profile matching the road conditions and are then separated with the help of top trolleys.

Thereafter, epoxy glue is applied to the surface of the segments fitting into each other and all the segments are joined together.