Gurgaon: Construction of the first phase of the new metro line gathered pace as the pile cap work started on Tuesday near the proposed Cyber Park station. With this, on-ground structural activity of the project will gradually become visible along the corridor, the GMRL officials said.The 15.3-km Phase 1 corridor will connect Millennium City Centre to Sector 9, passing along the key residential, commercial and corporate hubs of the city. Officials said that the construction of piers — the vertical columns that will carry the elevated viaduct — will now begin in phases along the alignment. Over 700 pile caps will be constructed underground in Phase 1.
GMRL started the piling work in Nov last year. “After completing the piling at designated locations, we now started casting pile caps near the proposed Cyber Park station. This marked the beginning of the substructure for the elevated corridor,” an official said.A pile cap is a thick concrete slab that sits on top of a group of piles. These piles are deep cylindrical structures drilled into the ground to transfer the load of the metro viaduct to stable soil strata below. The pile cap binds these individual piles together and distributes the load evenly, forming a strong foundation base for each pier. Once the pile cap is cast and gains strength, the pier shaft is erected above it, followed by the pier head and ultimately the launching of girders that support the tracks. Officials said that with pile cap casting underway, residents will soon see pier construction activity picking up along different sites of the corridor.In Aug last year, Dilip Buildcon Ltd and Ranjit Buildcon Ltd were tasked with the construction of Phase 1 for Rs 1,277 crore, and the work is expected to take 30 months. In the first phase, interchanges are planned at Millennium City Centre with the Yellow Line, Subhash Chowk with the proposed Bhondsi metro line, Hero Honda Chowk with RRTS corridors and Sector 10 with the bus terminal-cum-depot. An underpass at Bakhtawar Chowk will also be built.
