Nearly 35% of Chennai Metro Rail’s tunnelling completed in city for phase II project

Nearly 35% of Chennai Metro Rail’s underground web has been built for the upcoming ₹63,246 crore signifier II project.

Across the 3 corridors—Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5) which represent the 118.9 km signifier II project, Chennai Metro Rail has to bore for a full magnitude of 69.05 km.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), of the 69.05 km of passageway magnitude to beryllium created successful each 3 corridors of the signifier II project, 24.2 km of tunnels person been built.

The Madhavaram-SIPCOT corridor makes for the bulk of the underground network; successful this corridor alone, CMRL has to physique tunnels for a magnitude of 43.04 km and astatine present, 16.2 km has been completed. In the Poonamallee-Light House corridor, of 16.29 km to beryllium tunnelled, 7.56 km has been finished. In the Madhavaram-Sholinganallur corridor, the underground web is lone for 9.2 km but since the enactment was delayed owed to tender issues, lone 0.48 km of passageway has been built truthful far.

Officials said, the underground operation is gradually picking up gait and this period alone, 3 tunnels—between Greenways Road and Mandaveli, Royapettah and Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai and Panagal Park to Kodambakkam—finished their journeys.

In the coming months, rather a fewer passageway boring machines (TBM) volition decorativeness their journeys and execute breakthroughs successful locations including Perambur, Moolakadai, Kellys, Kilpauk and Thirumayilai. TBMs volition besides beryllium launched successful assorted sites including Thiruvanmiyur, Chetpet, Perambur Barracks Road and Kolathur.

Tunnelling successful the metropolis has been a premix of a fewer reasonably creaseless journeys and immoderate analyzable ones truthful far. In immoderate of the areas similar T. Nagar, Kodambakkam, Perambur, Adyar and Chetpet, the TBMs had to bore nether flyovers, railway tracks and waterbodies. This aside, betwixt Light House to Thirumayilai, the TBMs encountered pugnacious geological conditions and their parts had to beryllium replaced galore times.