There are certain unique features to the last remaining stretch and the shortest among the three corridors — Corridor Two or Green Corridor (11 km) of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project to be launched by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday.
It will be connected to Corridor Three or Blue Line (Nagole to Raidurg) at launch station of Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) itself through a 100-metre skywalk with the Parade Grounds station for passengers to seamlessly change routes without getting down on the road.
JBS station too is located next to the second largest bus terminus in the city and it is one of the tallest stations at 66 ft with five levels — street, lower concourse, upper concourse, lower platform and upper platform. It crosses Blue Line 20 ft above and Hari Hara Kala Bhavan flyover 31 ft above. Piers are built till the Secunderabad Club entrance to allow reversal of trains.
Owing to changes enforced midway in construction, the terminal station of Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) at Imlibun has become interchange station for passengers to change routes to Corridor One or Red Line (L.B. Nagar to Miyapur).
MGBS is said be the biggest metro station in the country (142/60 mts) where Green Line is atop the Red Line before it snakes towards L. B. Nagar. The station has levels with each again split into two, as one corridor has to pass over the other.
Interestingly, for metro trains’ maintenance, all the three corridors are connected again through extra overhead lines. Blue Line is connected to Green Line through a one km viaduct between Gandhi Hospital and Bhoiguda through Padmaraonagar-Chilkalguda without stations to enable trains to be taken towards Uppal depot.
Another 224-metre-long viaduct was built at MGBS to connect Red Line to Green Line for trains to be moved to Miyapur depot for maintenance. “Two extra elevated lines are built because the 17-acre Falaknuma depot could not be built as the project is halting at MGBS,” points out HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy.
Therefore, a reversal of about 600 metres can also be seen extending beyond MGBS station towards Falaknuma for trains to ‘reverse’ and return. Green Line also facilitates second entry/exit for Secunderabad railway station through Secunderabad West station though there is no connecting skywalk into the station.
“Completion of all three corridors marks the beginning of an era of seamless and hassle-free commuting in Hyderabad and increase the number of passengers significantly,” says L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad MD & CEO K.V.B. Reddy. As HMR races against time to get footpaths and other civic infrastructure underneath the stations ready, the heightened expectation is of the Chief Minister announcing the next phase.