Simplex Launches Bangalore Metro Reach 3C’s Final Steel Girder

Simplex Infrastructure last week launched the final 53m long steel composite girder for Bangalore Metro Green Line’s 3.031 km Reach 3C project on Tumkur Road.

This major milestone marks the completion of viaduct work on the smallest elevated extension of the 73.92 km Phase 2 project. It connects Nagasandra (formerly Hesaraghatta Cross) and Madavar (formerly BIEC) via 3 new stations at Manjunathnagar, Chikkabidarakallu (formerly Jindal) and Madavar.

The line’s 88 spans primarily consist of precast box segments. Three spans, all located between Chikkabidarakallu and Madavar stations, have been bridged by using twin steel composite girders.

• P625-P626 Span (east of Madavar Station) – girders launched in August 2023
• P617-P618 Span (over NH-48 northbound carriageway’s on-ramp towards NICE Road) – girders launched in June 2023
• P612-P613 Span (over NICE Road’s interchange) – girders launched in July 2023

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) had awarded its Rs. 298.65 crore civil construction contract to Simplex way back in February 2017 with a 27 month deadline.

Besides BMRCL struggling with land acquisition from Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise Ltd (NICE) for years, Simplex Infra ran into financial difficulties which slowed things down on Reach 3C and led to the termination of their contract for Pink Line (Reach 6)’s 7.501 km elevated section between Dairy Circle Ramp and Kalena Agrahara in February 2021.

Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd. had started casting this section’s track plinth work in March 2022, while Simplex had launched the final precast segment in May 2023.

Here’s a cool video by Prajavani on YouTube uploaded 12 days ago which shows how Madavar (BIEC) Station currently looks like. Civil work here was off to late start, so its completion progress (civil & architectural finishing) remains far behind that of Manjunathnagar and Chikkabidarakallu stations (view images here).

BMRCL’s game plan for this section remains unknown to me. No official or unofficial announcement has been made on the possibility of launching the 1.4 km Nagasandra – Chikkabidarakallu section first, so I’m inclined to believe they’ll wait for Godrej Interio to get BIEC Station ready up to a certain “usable” state, launch operations in early 2024 and complete work.

Whether that happens or not, we shall soon find out. Stay tuned…

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– TMRG