CHENNAI: The work on 45-km stretch of Chennai Metro Rail under the first phase, which includes two corridors, will be over by December 2018, according to Chennai Metro Rail Director (Projects) Rajeev Narayan Dwivedi.
Speaking at a session on ‘Chennai Infra’, Dwivedi said that the entire green line (Corridor 2) would be operational by March 2018. The green line from St Thomas Mount to Nehru Park is now 19.3 km long. The 2.7 km stretch linking Central Station via Egmore is expected to open in the first quarter of March 2018, said Dwivedi. He said the 4 km stretch from AG-DMS to Little Mount would also be opened simultaneously. This would mean that the Blue Line (Corridor-1) would have nearly 13 km stretch under operation from March 2018.
Dwivedi said only 1.4 km of tunnelling is yet to be done from AG DMS to Thousand Lights. The first tunnel will be ready by November and the second by December. Work on the 9 km extended stretch from Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar is progressing with 50 per cent tunnelling of the 2 km underground stretch over.
Phase II covering 107 km may undergo changes in the alignment in the 45 km Madhavaram to Siruseri corridor. “This includes 19 km elevated stretch and 26 km underground stretch. We may convert some of the underground stretch to elevated ones due to the time consuming work in burrowing due to uneven terrain of the city,” he said.
Bus link from Nehru Park Metro station to Central
Soon, you hwill have a bus link from Nehru Park to Chennai Central. Transport secretary P W C Davidar told Express that following a request from Chennai Metro Rail managing director, bus link would be provided from Nehru Park to Chennai Egmore and Chennai Central. This will be a big relief for commuters who are being fleeced by autos and taxis.