BENGALURU: A significant milestone was reached on Saturday regarding infrastructure work at the Jayadeva Interchange Metro Station when the final portal beam (the ones that support the track), was completed. It has taken 18 months for all the 24 beams required for this unique station to be installed. The challenges faced were plenty with the price of steel almost doubling due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the marked surge in diesel prices since the project began.
Each portal beam requires anywhere between 80 and 100 trucks of concrete (500 cubic metres). The station, with the tallest rail-cum-road flyover in South India, will connect the RV Road-Bommasandra Line (Reach-5) to the Nagawara-Kalena Agrahara Line (Reach-6).
Civil infrastructure work here is being carried out by the HCC-URC joint venture with the original cost estimated to be Rs 797 crore. “The project cost has roughly shot up by 20% due to the surge in cost of one tonne of steel from Rs 40,000 by 70% to 100% during different periods due to the shortage of this raw material on account of the crisis in Ukraine,” a source said.
“In addition to it, diesel price has surged from Rs 60 a litre in 2017 when the project began to Rs 100 now. We use 2,000 litres of diesel daily for our construction in connection with powering cranes, usage of concrete mixers, shifting of reinforcement material from the yard, for the trailers and for our generators,” the source added.
The completion of beams paves the way to move to the next stage of construction, another source said. “The pre-cast girders need to be erected as well as the deck slabs need to be installed,” he said. The structural work for the station will be completed by October this year, he said. The station was to be readied by October 2020. “Due to Covid, labour shortage as well as rains, the deadline was pushed to October 2021 and it has now been extended up to October 2022,” the source said.