Workers from NCC Ltd., the contractor for Nagpur Metro’s 7.61 km elevated Reach 1 section of the 19.66 km north-south line, have completed casting the project’s 1st pier on Wardha Road! The pier is currently being cured using gunny/hessian bags which will be removed in the coming days to reveal the finished product. Piling work to build the line’s foundation work had started in January after which workers began building pile caps in March.

As per a FB post by the NMRCL:

The pier is based on Pile foundation with 4 no. of piles having diameter of 1.2mtr each. On the top of Pile foundation is Pile cap of Size 5.7×5.7. The Pier size is 1.5 mtr x2.00 mtr. & Height of Pier is nearly 8.5 mtr. The grade of concrete is M 60.

If you look closely in the last image, you’ll spot workers tying up rebar for the 2nd pier.

In other encouraging news, the Ministry of Finance signed a Rs 3772 crore loan agreement with Germany’s KfW bank in Delhi on April 1 while a project level agreement was signed in Nagpur on April 10. In June, the NMRCL is expected to sign another loan agreement deal with France’s AFD bank for Rs 977 crore.

With more funds now in its pockets, in the coming weeks I expect the NMRCL to award contracts for the General Consultant and the construction of Reach 3 (Lokmanya Tilak Nagar to Rani Jhansi Square) on the 18.557 km east-west line.

For more updates on Nagpur’s Metro, check out the Nagpur section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG