Chennai Metro Rail Project

 











What is Metro Rail?
It is essentially a rapid transit, underground/ elevated/ subway system  that seeks to ease commute and save travel time in urban areas battling congestion.
The first ever Metro in India came up in Kolkata in 1984.


Why Metro Rail for Chennai?

Rapid expansion of the city and growing traffic volume has resulted in large-scale congestion in the city.
Metro Rail seeks to provide commuters a fast, reliable, convenient, efficient, modern, economical  and integrated mode of public transport.

What is the estimated cost of the project? Who funds it?
 

The estimated cost is Rs. 14,600 crore, including escalation, Central taxes and interest during the period of construction, but excluding State taxes and value of vacant state government land. The Central and State governments, together, are expected to contribute about 41% of the total cost. The rest will  be met by a loan granted by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Details of Chennai Metro Rail Project

TN Govt under M Karunanidhi included the 'Chennai Metro Rail Project'  in the 2007-08 State Government's budget, and an amount of 50 crores had been sanctioned for preliminary works which included a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to be prepared by the 'Delhi Metro Rail Project' and the approval for the project was finally given by the state cabinet on Nov 07, 2007 and is to be executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV), the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL).
A total of 7 lines have been planned by the DMRC for the Chennai Metro network.^[6] Two routes are currently under construction as part of the first phase, with several planned for future phases of the metro network.

Line	Termini		Opening Date	Length (km)	Underground (km)	Underground stations	Elevated stations	Interchange
Line 1	Tiruvottiyur	Airport	2014	32.1	14.3	11	6	Suburban MRTS 2
Line 2	Central Station	St Thomas Mount	2013	22	9.7	9	8	Suburban MRTS 1
Line 3	Mogappair	Tiruvanmiyur		24	10	9	8	4, MRTS
Line 4	Porur	Kamarajar Salai						3
Line 5	Ring Road	Ring Road
Line 6	Radhakrishnan Salai	KMC						2
Line 7	Along NH5 Road	Along NH5 Road

The construction started on June 10,2009 with thePiling Work for the elevated viaduct between Koyambedu and Ashok Nagar stretch.Construction is expected to be fully completed by February 2015. The first section to be opened will be on Line 2 between Koyambedu and St. Thomas Mount and this stretch is likely to be in operation by 2013.

There are two corridors with a combined length of 45 km.
 
Corridor I (23.1 km) will run from Washermenpet to Airport via Anna Salai and 

Corridor II (22 km) will run from Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount via Koyambedu

 Metro Rail Operating Underground
The portions from Washermenpet to Saidapet on Anna Salai (Corridor I) and Chennai Central to Thirumangalam (Corridor II) will be underground.

 Metro Rail Depot
Koyambedu is the terminal point where, apart from a station, the Metro Rail Depot is also coming up. At the 63-acre depot, space has been earmarked for parking coaches after the day's operations. A 6-floor admin building, nearly complete now, will house the main control room from where the entire 45-km stretch of Metro Rail can be monitored. 

 Meeting Point of Corridor I and Corridor II
The two corridors of the Metro line will converge at Alandur. Passen-gers can switch from one route to the other at the two-layered station which spans an area of 150 m X 25 m. Trains from Washermenpet, heading southward via Anna Salai, will halt at level one, and those from Koyambedu to St. Thomas Mount, will
stop at level two, at a height of nearly 20 m above the ground. 


Chennai’s Metro Rail is coming up at a cost of Rs. 14,600 crore and the first 13 km stretch from Koyambedu to St-Thomas Mount is expected to be operational by mid-2014 

 

CMBT Station to be ready in October 2013

  A view of the elevated Chennai Metro Rail track at Koyambedu in Chennai

 

The Metro station on the premises of Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) will be the first to be ready in the city by October 2013

“At present, the flooring and roof work is on and escalators are also being installed. The station will have a granite floor and false ceilings,” said a Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) official

The CMBT station is one of 9 of a total of 13 elevated stations coming up in the city that will have parking. 

 

The 152-year-old CSI Wesley Tamil Aalayam on Broadway has developed cracks due to the ongoing Chennai Metro Rail tunnelling work, confirmed officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL)

Two days after cracks developed on the 152-year-old CSI Wesley Tamil Aalayam in Broadway due to Metro Rail tunnelling work, two fresh cracks developed on another heritage building — the 121-year-old Arcot Lutheran Church on Prakasam Salai in Broadway. 

Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) said the cracks developed on the walls inside the church

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) was then drilling underneath the building as part of the Metro Rail tunnelling work between Mannady and Madras High Court

A four-storey building in Broadway developed several cracks  as a result of Chennai Metro Rail work. Residents of STS complex on Anna Pillai Street in Broadway noticed the cracks on the walls of their houses

Officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) said the damage was due to the underground tunnelling work progressing between Mannady and Madras High Court.

“The second and third floors of the building have been affected by these cracks. While about 5-6 cracks are minor — of about 2-3 mm width — one of them is a major crack with a width of 6-8 mm.But we are yet to come to a conclusion. We are analysing what may have caused this damage,” said an official.

TN CM J Jayalalithaa Flags Off Metro Rail Test Run Wed Nov 06,2013

Flagging off the test run of the Chennai Metro Rail, TN Chief Minister Jayalalithaa inquisitively watched the four-coach train making a small trip of one km along the test track in Koyambedu on Wed Nov 06,2013

 

 


 
Flagging off the test run at Koyambedu depot, the Chief Minister, accompanied by Minister concerned P. Thangamani and Chief Secretary Sheela Balakrishnan, surveyed the interior of a four-coach train for about 10 minutes

 

She went to the driver's cabin and spent some time there. To her queries on the progress of the project and features of the rake, CMRL Managing Director K. Rajaraman gave answers. 

 

The Chief Minister took a look at different features of the train such as automatic train protection and operation systems, arrangements for emergency exit and provision for differently-abled and information on stations. 

 

She also switched on a 25-KV (kilo volt) overhead traction system, which would be used to power trains.
 

“The current round of tests will go on for some more weeks. By January, a section of the elevated portion of the corridor connecting Koyambedu with St. Thomas Mount will be taken up for test run,” said a senior official of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL)

  Trial Run Thursday Jan 30,2014

Seven months after the first train manufactured for Chennai Metro Rail in Sao Paulo, Brazil, hit the city’s Port, it went through the much-awaited trial run on the elevated track from the Koyambedu depot on Thursday Jan 30,2014

Around 9 a.m. the train sloped upwards on the ramp from the test-track in the depot and entered the elevated corridor. The train continued making rounds in this path till late afternoon. 

The trial run covered less then two km and did not cross the Koyambedu Metro station. It will go through this exercise for another 15 days after which the train will be tested extensively from Koyambedu till Ashok Nagar, officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) said


Trial Run Friday Feb 14,2014

At noon on Friday Feb 14,2014, the train departed from the depot in Koyambedu, travelled at a speed of about 10 kmph and reached Ashok Nagar in about an hour. But when it returned, the speed was increased to almost 25 kmph, officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited said.

The speed of the train during such trials may be limited; but when the Metro Rail gets operational, the train’s average speed will be 35 kmph and maximum speed 80 kmph

 Underground Digging Operation for Chennai Metro Train

There is a flurry of activity at Nehru Park for the construction of an underground station — where the first Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) from China was launched in July 2012

Two TBMs from China were employed at this station to drill from Nehru Park to Egmore and it took nearly 18 months for the machines to tunnel a distance of about 950 metres. 

The construction of an underground station with two levels, the concourse and platform, is afoot at Nehru Park. Soon after this station becomes operational, the four entry/exit points of this station (near Kilpauk traffic police station, Sangam theatre complex, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu and Arya Vaidya Sala) will serve as subways even for non-Metro users