Systra-RITES-DB consortium has been chosen as the General Consultant (GC) for Hyderabad Airport Metro project.
The 31-km Hyderabad Airport Metro Express project will connect Mindspace junction near Rayadurgam Metro Station to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) at Shamshabad, with a travel time of 26 minutes.
Hyderabad Airport Metro Ltd (HAML), the special purpose vehicle of the government and a joint venture between Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL), Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and Telangana State Industrial and Infrastructure Cooperation (TSIIC) will build the semi-high-speed corridor under the second phase of the Hyderabad Metro.
According to the information provided by HAML managing director NVS Reddy, the SYSTRA-led consortium were technically the highest scorer and also emerged as the lowest bidder (financially L1) with a quote of Rs 98.54 crore.
The consortium as the GC for Hyderabad Airport Metro project will deploy 18 specialist experts and about 70 senior and field engineers during construction of the project, said Reddy.
The HAML in December 2022 had called for tenders for appointment of a general consultant for the project to oversee the work of tender documentation, reviewing the detailed project report (DPR) prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) five years ago, planning, quality control, and so on.
A total of five engineering consortiums had qualified for appointment as general consultant for the project.
The qualified consortiums included AECOM India + Egis Rail (France) + Egis India; Ayesa Ingenieria y Arquitectura (Spain) + Aarvee Associates + Nippon Koi (Japan); Consulting Engineers Group + Korea National Railway (South Korea); Systra (France) + RITES + DB Engineering & Consulting (Germany); and Technica y Proyectos (Spain) + PINI Group (Switzerland).
Project Details
The foundation stone for the Hyderabad Airport Metro Project was laid by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on 9 December last year.
Estimated to cost Rs 6,250 crore, the project is fully funded by the state government.
Taking off from Raidurg Metro terminal station, it will touch Hyderabad’s Outer Ring Road (ORR) at Nanakramguda junction and traverse along the ORR to reach Shamshabad international airport.
The semi-high-speed metro will be mostly elevated with 27.5 km of the total 31 km going to be elevated while 2.5 km in the airport area will be underground and about 1 km will be at grade or road level.
The proposed project trains will be running at 120 kmph providing fast commute with likelihood of airport check-in at the starting point after with few halts en route till the airport terminal.
Soli Testing Underway
After fixing the alignment and completion of peg marking, soil testing has been commenced for determining the soil bearing capacity of Airport Metro in Hyderabad.
The soil testing will be done for about two months for 100 metro pillar locations starting from IKEA junction and going up to Shamshabad International Airport, informed Reddy.
The process involves collecting borehole soil samples up to a depth of about 40 feet from road surface at each location. Soil bearing capacity will be determined through both, in-situ tests and lab tests of the soil samples, Reddy said.
The detailed soil investigation is a necessary exercise to ascertain the type of foundation, that is, open foundation or pile foundation, required depth of the foundation and allowable bearing pressure among others. Further, these results will also guide the prospective bidders to assess their rates for taking up construction.
The soil testing exercise is expected to be completed in two months and the exercise will run parallelly to the tender preparation and other pre-construction activities.