Second JBS station to come for new metro rail extensions towards Medchal & Shamirpet

The proposed routes of Hyderabad Metro corridors to Medchal and Shamirpet originating from Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) in Secunderabad
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement

Hyderabad Airport Metro Rail (HAML) has decided to build a new JBS metro station towards the left of the existing JBS metro terminal station from where it proposes to combine metro rail extension corridors towards Medchal and Shamirpet.

“The new joint elevated metro line alignment with twin tracks will be built for a considerable distance before the two alignments, including the existing twin tracks at JBS will bifurcate into two separate metro lines — one towards Medchal and another towards Shamirpet terminal stations,” said Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy on Sunday.

“The plan is to develop JBS as a ‘Mega Metro’ hub to cater to the commuting and other needs of residents of Secunderabad and northern parts of the city, apart from those who are coming from northern Telangana districts as advised by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy,” he said.

Hyderabad Airport Metro Rail MD N.V.S. Reddy inspecting the two new proposed extensions towards Medchal & Shamirpet from JBS on Sunday.
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SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

For this purpose, land pooling of 30 acres belonging to the State government and the Defence Ministry is being taken up. Taking the suggestion of Chief Minister for combining both Paradise-Medchal and JBS-Shamirpet metro corridors initially and splitting it into two corridors thereafter, the MD and his team inspected different roads of Cantonment area to find the best possible metro rail alignment.

These included JBS-Secunderabad club road, Staff road (Picket KV school road), Mudfort road, Tivoli junction road, Diamond point-Centre point-Hasmathpet-Bowenpally (Sarojini Pulla Reddy bungalow) road; Tadbund-Anjaneya Swamy temple road, Tadbund jn-Airport office jn-Bowenpally check-post road.

HAML officials said that by having a joint station for the new corridors, they can avoid the complex work of building the metro line through a tunnel below the Begumpet airport as is being taken up by the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA).

HMDA is said to be considering taking the proposed elevated corridor’s alignment below the runway of Begumpet airport (Tadbund/Bowenpally side) for about 600 metres through a tunnel. This was necessitated due to the steep curvature of the road from Paradise to Bowenpally along the airport boundary and upon the insistence of airport authorities, said an official release.

“Dropping the metro rail corridor from the double elevation level over the planned HMDA elevated corridor into a tunnel and again raising it to the double elevated level would pose several engineering complications for metro rail construction,” explained Mr. N.V.S. Reddy.

“Instead, the plan is join the metro rail alignment at National Highway junction at the end of Bowenpally (adjacent to Sarojini Pulla Reddy bungalow) road. Thereafter, the metro line viaduct can be constructed on the widened service road median without disturbing the NH flyovers under construction,” he said.

The MD pointed out that this will have the advantage of providing direct link for the Medchal corridor with the airport corridor, establishing an end-to-end 60 km metro rail corridor of Medchal-JBS-MGBS-Chandrayangutta-Airport link.

Double elevation

With regard to the JBS-Shamirpet metro rail alignment, the plan is to extend it from the existing first metro pillar near Secunderabad Club as a double elevated structure over the proposed HMDA elevated corridor on Karimnagar Highway, being widened by HMDA.

The MD asked his engineers to evaluate alternate routes to avoid steep curves, cater to as many colonies as possible, minimise the acquisition of private properties, fix tentative station locations and check availability of vacant lands for parking and other passenger facilities. Chief project manager B. Anand Mohan, General Managers B.N. Rajeshwar, M. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy and A. Balakrishna, Deputy chief engineer (Railways) J.N. Gupta and other senior officers also participated in the inspection.