Ameerpet to Hi-Tec City Metro rail trial runs on

Hyderabad: Coinciding with the first anniversary of the launch of the Hyderabad Metro’s operations, trial runs on the Ameerpet – Hi-Tec City stretch of Metro Corridor-III began here on Thursday. A team of technical experts and engineers led by HMRL MD NVS Reddy and L&T MRHL MD KVB Reddy travelled by a Metro train on the stretch and observed various critical parameters and performance of the train during the trial run.

The stretch between Ameerpet and Hi-Tec City is of 10 km with eight stations viz., Madhura Nagar (Taruni), Yousufguda, Jubilee Hills Road No.5, Jubilee Hills Check Post, Peddammagudi, Madhapur, Durgam Cheruvu and Hi-Tec City. Overcoming several technical challenges due to sharp curvatures and gradients on a curvaceous road with steep climbs and innumerable court cases against acquisition of the affected properties etc., HMRL and L&T MRHL have achieved a major milestone in providing much-awaited Metro Rail access to the Hi-Tec City area, officials said. Since the train reversal facility beyond Hi-Tec City station up to Trident Hotel will take a few more months for completion, NVS Reddy said they had a technical solution and that trains would be run in ‘twin single line method.’

In this method of train operations, a double line railway track functions as two separate single lines where each railway line works as an independent single line and trains are operated in both up and down directions on the same line as if these are two independent single lines. The twin single line method, which is used by many railways in the world, including Indian Railways under some special circumstances, will be followed till train reversal facility beyond Hi-Tec City Metro station is completed. Both conventional railway signalling systems and the highly sophisticated Communication Based Train Control (CBTC) system of Hyderabad Metro permit this type of twin single line train operations, he said.

Expressing his happiness over commencement of trial runs on the highly challenging and critical stretch, KVB Reddy said the achievement demonstrated the engineering excellence and expertise of L&T and its commitment to complete the project at an early date. HMRL Chief Electrical Engineer DVS Raju, Superintendent Engineer M Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, DCP A. Balakrishna, L&TMRHL Project Director MP Naidu, Chief Operating Officer AK Saini and other senior officials were present for the trial run.