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The TBM ‘Adyar’ began tunneling from Greenways Road Metro Station in June 2023 and completed its journey to Adyar Junction Metro Station in September 2024.
With Chennai Metro Phase-II spanning 118.9 km and 128 stations, the city is set to revolutionize urban connectivity.
The Chennai Metro Rail II service between Poonamallee and Porur will be inaugurated by this year-end, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Thursday.
Also, he reiterated his request to the Central government to give the nod for the metro rail projects for Coimbatore and Madurai cities.
The chief minister inspected the tunnel boring machine emerging from the Adyar Junction Metro Station area that covers a total distance of 1.218 km, including the challenging route under the Adyar River for 300 meters.
“The Chennai Metro Rail works, which were started when ‘Kalaignar’ M Karunanidhi was the Chief Minister and I was then Deputy Chief Minister, are progressing rapidly under our current Dravidian model government,” Stalin said.
“After delays during the previous regime, we continued the second phase of work, primarily with the state funds,” Stalin said in a post on the social media platform ‘X’.
Accepting the state government’s request, the Centre approved this project, he said.
“The metro rail service between Poonamallee-Porur will be inaugurated by the end of 2025. I have instructed the @cmrlofficial administration to complete the remaining works within the stipulated time. When these works are fully completed, Chennai will set new standards in urban public transport connectivity in India!,” he said in the post.
During his inspection of the ongoing works today, he was very happy to see that the project started by his government was progressing. “At this time, I once again request the Union Government to give approval for the metro rail projects for Coimbatore and Madurai cities, as well,” the CM said.
The Metro Rail project was approved in 2007 and the work commenced in June 2009. Passenger services were fully operational on two lines of the 54.1 km long Chennai Metro Rail Project Phase-I. An average of more than 3.1 lakh people travel per day under this project, an official release here said.
Chennai Metro Rail Phase-II across the city is underway on three corridors for a total length of 118.9 km with 128 railway stations at an estimated cost of Rs 63,246 crore. About 23 tunnel boring machines were being used for this project and a total of 42.6 km of tunneling is being carried out in Phase-II.
In Corridor 3, the tunnelling works from Greenways station to Adyar junction station commenced in February 2023. The length of each tunnel is 1228 m. The tunnels pass below Adyar River for a length of 300 m.
Tunneling work is being carried out in two sections, Madhavaram-Kellis and Kellis-Tharamani, covering a length of 26.7 km on Corridor 3 alone.
Successfully overcoming the complex challenges of diverse soil types, hard rocks, high-flow areas and urban hazards, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) named Adyar started its tunneling operations in June 2023 from Greenways Road Metro Station and emerged near Adyar Junction Metro Station, covering a total distance of 1.218 km, including a 300-meter-long section of the tunnel that goes under the Adyar River at a depth of about 40 to 50 feet.
In September 2024, the TBM named Kaveri completed the downline tunneling operation.
The TBM also passed below a few petrol bunks, MGR Janaki College, Andhra Sabha Hospital, Durgabai Deshmukh road and Adyar bridge ramp.
State Municipal Administration Minister K N Nehru, Forests Minister K Ponmudy, Additional Chief Secretary, Special Initiatives Department K Gopal, Managing Director, Chennai Metro Rail Corporation M A Siddique, Directors and senior officials of Chennai Metro Rail Corporation were present during the chief minister’s inspection.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
