CHENNAI : The soil testing going on at various locations for Chennai Metro Rail’s phase-2 project will be completed early by next year. The project will be connecting Madhavaram, Sholinganallur and CMBT to other parts of the city.Officials said soil tests are pending only at nearly 1,000 locations in two non-priority corridors: CMBT-Shollinganallur and Light House-Poonamallee. Currently tests are being conducted along Arcot Road, Nandambakkam, Koot Road, Medavakkam, Porur and Sholinganallur.
“Madhavaram to Sholinganallur and Madhavarm to CMBT are the two priority corridors. Soil testing work along these stretches has been completed across 1,926 locations. Only 50 per cent work is remaining in the other two corridors,” said an official. These geo-technical tests were started initially in Madhavaram three months ago to find out the soil condition, hard rock depth, and location of the water table at various points. Officials said that according to the type of soil at each stretch, a specific set of tools will be used for tunnelling.
Once these tests are over, traffic congestion in narrow lanes where soil test is going on will come down. Also, residents can heave a sigh of relief as water and sewer lines will no longer be damaged after the tests are completed.Besides, following incidents of water leakages in underground stations of phase-1 Metro Rail after rains, officials said enough space would be made during phase-2 construction to release the water pressure.
“When it heavily rains, water percolates into the soil and sometimes enters the Metro Rail structures. This will be avoided in phase-2 so that water doesn’t seep through. We are checking permeability of the soil too for this,” added the official.Also, tender will be called for in January next year for the construction of the 118-km project. Once this is completed along with soil tests, preliminary work will start for the project by the middle of next year, added officials.