CMRL has floated tenders for an 8 km elevated line between Porur Junction and Poonamallee bypass. The stretch, which was earlier planned as a monorail project, is part of the 26 km corridor-4 from Light House to Poonamallee Bypass, planned under phase-II of the project. The corridor-4 is being built at an estimated cost of Rs 2,671 crore, funded Asian by Infrastructure Investment Bank.
Chennai Metro Phase-2 will have 118.9 km across three corridors with 128 stations, to be built at a cost of Rs 69,000 crore. Construction for a 52 km stretch of the phase-2 is likely to begin before the year-end and is to be ready by 2024-25.
The tender awardee has to build the elevated corridor with nine stations within three years. The stations are; Chennai bypass crossing, Ramachandra Hospital, Iyyappanthangal bus depot, Kattupakkam, Kumanan Chavadi, Karayan Chavadi, Mullai Thottam, Poonamallee Bus terminus and Poonamallee bypass as well as the approach to the depot to come up at Poonamallee.
“When we float tenders, companies may want to visit the site before they participate and that is difficult, given the situation. We are getting all the paperwork ready, so we will begin to float them as the situation improves,” a CMRL official said.
Corridor 4 from Light House to Poonamallee cuts across the core of Chennai linking several localities with the developing outskirts. Mylapore, Nandanam, T Nagar, Kodambakkam and Vadapalani will be connected to the developing IT hub in Porur and places such as Iyyappanthangal, Kattupakkam and Poonamallee, which are poorly connected now.
The Porur-Poonamallee stretch was earlier part of the monorail project. As of 2012, monorail was to connect Kathipara to Poonamallee; linking Porur, SRMC Hospital, Iyyappanthangal, Kattupakkam, Kumananchavadi and Karayanchavadi in a ‘Y’ shaped alignment including an arm from Porur to Vadapalani and Velachery to Vandalur.
CMRL conducted a study on passenger flow that revealed high traffic density between Porur and Poonamallee and corridor-4 was extended from Light House to Poonamallee bypass, instead of the original Koyambedu.
In July, CMRL floated a tender for an eight km line from Power House in Kodambakkam to Porur Junction.