URC Construction bags CMRL's depot contract

URC Construction has emerged as the lowest bidder for building Chennai Metro Rail’s (CMRL) largest depot at Madhavaram which will house a majority of the trains that will run under the Phase II project, said official sources, adding that the construction work is all set to start shortly. The depot will come up on 27.8 hectares of land and would be bigger than the facility at Koyambedu, which is spread over 25 hectares of area.

The Madhavaram depot would have facilities essential for stabling lines, inspection lines, workshop for overhaul, workshop for carrying out major repairs of trains and wheel profiling, besides cleaning of roof and interiors of trains. As many as 112 trains would run in the phase II project and all of them would be equipped to be operated as driverless. Initially, the trains would have three coaches and later three more will be added if demand arises. This depot is being constructed mainly for regular maintenance of trains operated on two corridors of Madhavaram-SIPCOT and Madhavaram-Sholinganallur in Phase II project. For the third corridor of Poonamallee-LightHouse, a depot would be built at Poonamallee for which the contract had been awarded to a joint venture between Ukraine-based Altis Holding Corporation and Varindera Constructions. Since the CMRL plans to start operations after 2025, both the depots should be ready first as they would have testing tracks and facilities to conduct trial runs of new trains before certifying them as fit for operations.