L&T Casts India’s Longest U-Girder for Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project
Larsen & Toubro (L&T) last week began pouring concrete to cast the first set of 31 meter long U-girders for an 8.027 km elevated viaduct of the 149 km Bengaluru Suburban Rail project (BSRP).
L&T’s casting yard is located in Devanahalli and supports construction of the project’s viaduct between Benniganahalli and Chikkabanavara on 23.866 km Corridor 2 (Baiyyappanahalli – Chikkabanavara) also known as ‘Mallige Line’.
The mould / formwork for casting was designed and manufactured by Winsteel Engineering Works.
At 30 meters – this is the longest ever U-girder to be cast in India for building a rail line’s viaduct. U-girders cast elsewhere for metro projects, such as Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kanpur etc., have typically been a maximum of 27.90 meters long.
Last week, L&T started launching 30 meter long U-girders in Chennai for the 116.1 km Chennai Metro Phase 2 project’s Line-3 on Old Mahabalipuram Road (OMR).
Per Karnataka’s Rail Infrastructure Development Company (K-RIDE)’s press release, L&T will casting a total of 450 such U-girders in Bengaluru. Each of these pre-tensioned U-girders is made of 69.5 cubic metres of M60 grade concrete and weighs 178 tonnes.
KRIDE had awarded Larsen & Toubro with BSRP corridor-2 viaduct’s Rs. 849.97 crore contract in 2022 with a 27 month deadline.
Besides constructing a 8.027 km elevated viaduct, their scope of work also includes ramps and formation in embankments / cuttings including blanketing, major bridges, minor bridges, RUB, ROB, ROR, retaining wall, sacrificial retaining wall and drains, utility diversions of the project’s 17.551 km long at-grade section.
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– TMRG
Hi TMRG
The sub urban rail project along with under construction metros can be a game changer for Bengaluru and get the city commute ‘moving’ again. If it’s well integrated with metro then it can bring millions of commuters to public transport. I have a couple of questions for you 🙂
1. How well do you think the sub urban rail alignment is integrated to namma metro? Would it lead to seamless interchange between the 2 modes of commute?
2. Given that only approx 8km of Mallige line is elevated whilst the rest is at grade and the construction activities have started, what’s your estimate in terms of completion of this line? Can we expect start of operations in next 2/3 years by 2026?
Hi, I haven’t come across detailed interchange designs but imagine there will be FOBs or walkways linking both systems’ stations wherever the alignments meet. As they’re owned by separate entities, ticketing will likely be different although a NCMC card can ease some of that pain.
Construction on the ground is still in its nascent stage, so I don’t see the line opening up prior to 2027. What’s good is that KRIDE is on track to finalize a rolling stock vendor by mid 2024, so the availability of trains shouldn’t be an issue.