SNC Casts Bangalore Metro ORR Line’s 1st U-Girder
Shankaranarayana Constructions (SNC) on Friday started pouring concrete to cast the first set of 27.90m U-girders for Bangalore Metro’s 56 km Blue Line on the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
The city’s new Blue Line by BMRCL is being developed in Phase 2A (ORR Line) and Phase 2B (Airport Line) to connect Silkboard – KR Puram – Bengaluru International Airport through 30 stations.
SNC’s casting yard for the ORR Line’s 8.377 km Package 2 (Kodibeesanahalli – KR Puram) is located in Kacharakanahalli near Whitefield (view on google maps). It currently consists of a 146m long casting bed from where 5 U-girders weighing 165 tons each will be cast. Work is underway to add another U-girder casting bed and casting formwork for I-girders.
SNC was awarded ORR Line Package 2’s Rs. 623.55 crore contract in May 2021 with a tight 27 month deadline.
Their scope includes constructing the line’s Kodibeesanahalli – KR Puram section’s 8.377 km viaduct, 7 elevated stations at Kodibeesanahalli, Marathahalli, ISRO, Doddanekundi, DRDO sports complex, Saraswathi Nagar and K R Puram, a 1.097 km depot-line linking to the existing Baiyapanahalli Depot and a 0.30 km pocket track.
Additional snaps can be viewed here and here. Back in January-end, SNC cast Package 2’s first pier (ORP-473) in Doddanekundi – see snaps & details here.
Per BMRCL’s LOA, SNC was supposed to start casting U-girders within 126 days from the award of contract in May 2021, so SNC is running way behind the prescribed schedule. This milestone (Key Date#2) of the contract comes with a penalty of 0.001% of total contract price per day of delay.
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– TMRG
U girder being used 1st time in Bengaluru
It was delayed bcoz 126 days later, tree hurdles were there. Permission to remove trees from Silk Board to Kadubeesanahalli/Kodibaasanahalli came in Nov/Dec Last Year only.
If the delays were due to ‘forces beyond contractor’s control’, (like the permissions from other bodies) pretty sure they don’t have to pay any penalties.
Although, issues of tree cutting permissions on the alignment route shouldn’t affect casting of girders. They can always cast enough U girders till casting yard reaches full capacity, then pause until they can launch enough girders to clear up space.
Also, Mahametro recieved only two bidders for their PSD tender for the UG stations, and both were technically non-responsive, so they’ve already issued a new tender. That was fast.
https://www.punemetrorail.org/download/Technical_Evaluation_Result_P1S03_2021.pdf
Agreed. Typically contractors’ legal team have a way to wriggle out of such things by placing the blame on external forces.
That PSD evaluation is interesting. Wonder why KTK got disqualified as they’ve delivered to Delhi/Mumbai
Wow, that’s a pretty long girder. Hope to see it being placed soon!
It’s 1 casting bed with the ability to churn out 5 girders at a time.
Ah, I see. Interesting!