CIDCO races against time for metro rail

Racing against time to ensure that work on Navi Mumbai metro rail's first phase finishes as per deadline, the City Industrial and Development Corporation Ltd (CIDCO) has started launching girders to place segments which form the metro rail viaduct, even though just 30 piers of the required 329 have been constructed so far. CIDCO started launching the piers only a few days ago at Pethpada in Kharghar.

CIDCO awarded a contract to a joint venture between J Kumar Company and Nagarjun Construction Company for the civil work of the first stage of the first phase of Navi Mumbai Metro Rail Project - from Belapur to Pendhar. Both companies have constructed 30 piers so far and are supposed to construct 299 more piers on the route.

CIDCO has started launching girders in an attempt to expedite the ongoing metro work - already facing delays - since CIDCO is supposed to launch the metro rail on the Belapur - Pendhar route by May 2014. "Due to some technical issues and policy decisions, the metro work has been delayed. So we have started launching metro girders on the piers. We will be able to expedite the metro work by carrying out the casting of girders and launching them on to the constructed piers simultaneously. The launching of girders will be stopped if piers are not constructed on time," said a CIDCO official.

Meanwhile, NS Pitale, chief engineer (metro) of CIDCO, claimed, "We have started launching girders though just 30 piers have been constructed. However, we will be able to ensure that piers are constructed on time so the girder-launching can be done on time. We anticipate that the metro rail will be commissioned on the Belapur-Pendhar route as per the deadline." u00a0