Times News Network
Kanpur: To meet the deadline for conducting trial run on the 9km long Priority Corridor of Kanpur Metro between IIT and Motijheel, by November 2021, engineers of Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation Limited (UPMRCL) are moving ahead with innovative work style to not only speed up the civil work but also enhance the aesthetic beauty of the civil structure in the Knapur Metro project.
The UPMRC engineers have added one more achievement to their record list with the successful innovation of ‘Twin Pier Cap’ on the Metro Depot Line.
UPMRC claimed that this is the first time in India, when ‘Twin Pier Caps’ have been constructed under any Metro Rail Project.
A ‘depot line’ is being constructed between Gurudev and Geeta Nagar connecting the mainline and the Polytechnic Metro Depot. For cleaning of Metro Trains on the said Depot line, an ‘Automatic Train Washing Plant’ is to be installed. The width of this plant being greater than the width of Metro viaduct, there is a need of a wider base for the plant. On the Depot Line, where the washing plant is to be installed, the width of the structure of the Metro Corridor will be about 15 meters, while the width of the viaduct is about nine meters because of which the normal Pier Cap being used in the corridor is not suitable for providing base to the washing plant arrangement at the designated location and therefore, the ‘Twin Pier Caps’ have been innovated.
Usually, in the structure of a Metro corridor, inverted-U portals are constructed to give a wide base for the automatic train washing plant arrangement, in which two columns (pillars) are erected on both sides of the road and then a beam is placed on them. But the use of Twin Pier Caps built by Kanpur Metro saves time and space and also beautifies the structure.
UPMRC drew a Twin Pier Cap on two adjacent pillars on the same side of the road (between Geeta Nagar and Gurudev). Therefore, the space on both sides of the road did not have to be used and the time taken for construction work was also saved. A total of seven Twin Pier Caps are to be built on the Depot Line, out of which three have already been constructed. Out of seven Twin Pier Caps, three will be used to support Automatic Washing Plant while the remaining four will normalize the width of the Depot Line gradually. The length of the Automatic Washing Plant will be 54 Meters.
Managing director, UPMRC Kumar Keshav said, “Twin Pier Cap is the second such successful innovation after the double T-girder, which has been implemented in the Kanpur Metro Project for the first time in the Metro Rail sector of India and it is a matter of pride for all of us. The credit for this goes to the research and innovation based working style of our Metro engineers. The entire team of UPMRC, civil contractor AFCONS and the General Consultants deserve applause on this achievement. I am quite confident that the Kanpur Metro Rail Project will emerge as a paradigm for all other Metro Rail Projects in the country.”