Groundwork on the 31-km Hyderabad Airport Metro Express project is scheduled to begin in September

The ₹6,250-crore project will be funded totally by the Telangana government along with 10% contribution each by Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and the GMR Hyderabad International Airport, Shamshabad, he told a pre-bid meeting with prospective construction firms likely to bid for the work held at the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) office.

The meeting held as a sequel to the global tenders invited for selection of EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contractor for the project was attended by technical teams of 13 national and global companies, including Alstom, Siemens, Tata Projects, IRCON, RVNL, BEML, PANDROL Rahee technologies and others.

Mr.Reddy emphasised that Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao and Minister for Municipal Administration K.T. Rama Rao are directly monitoring the progress of the project and hence, the timelines decided by the government by the selected EPC has to be maintained.

Most of the preliminary works like survey, peg marking, alignment fixation etc., were completed and soil testing is in full swing. The updated survey and alignment fixation showed that between Raidurg metro station and Airport terminal station, there will have an elevated portion of 29.3 km and underground portion of 1.7 km.

It will have nine stations, including one underground metro station, adjacent to the airport terminal. The prospective bidders’ queries pertaining to the civil structures, rolling stock (trains), signalling and train control systems, performance indices, technical specifications etc., were discussed at length in the meeting for which clarifications were given by the MD and his technical team.

The technical team consisted of adviser (civil engineering) Subodh Jain, chief electrical engineer D.V.S. Raju, chief project manager B.Anand Mohan, general manager M.Vishnuvardhan Reddy, SE Y.Sayapa Reddy, deputy chief engineer (Railway) J.N. Gupta and the General Consultants team, said an official spokesperson.