Phase II Of Chennai Metro Rail Project To Now Cover 118.7 Km With 128 Stations

According to the revised alignment of Phase II of the Chennai Metro Rail Project, there would be 128 stations across the 118.9 km long network, the Metro Rail News reports. Sources said that at the beginning, two corridors would be constructed, one from Madhavaram to CMBT and another corridor from Madhavaram to Shollinganallur.

The tenders would be floated in the coming months, and the construction work is set to begin by 2019-end. Further, the funds for the Chennai Metro Phase II project would be arriving from the centre soon, as per the information.

“We have already begun the process of looking at the documents submitted for funds for this project. We will approve at the earliest,” a source said. CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami on 9 February 2019, had sent a request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a 50-50 joint venture partnership for the project, and the centre is set to provide Rs 11,110 crore over six years.

Unlike the Phase I and its extension projects, the Chennai Metro would not need for the Centre to provide funds to begin work. “We already have funds to start this project, and the first tranche of a loan from JICA will also come in, which will allow us to start construction. Meanwhile, we understand the funds from the Centre too will be granted very soon,” said a source.

Earlier, the proposed network of Phase II was 108 km with 108 stations. However, the number has gone upto 128 stations in 118.9 kms with four new stations. From the 128 stations, 80 are set to be elevated stations and the rest 48 stations would be underground. Since the number of stations has increased in various areas, stations would now be less than a km apart.