CMRL plans ₹61,843-cr Phase-II metro network

To make traveling easy from Poonamallee, Kattupakkam, Karambakkam, Porur and neighboring areas to any northern or southern part of the city, the Chennai Metro Rail Limited under its Phase II project has planned to invest ₹61,843 crore. The work on the project has already begun on three corridors — Madhavaram to SIPCOT (Corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (Corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Shollinganallur (Corridor 5), with funding from the State and Union governments and international banks.

Metro train under Phase II project will enable commuters to switch between two stretches — Corridor 4 and Corridor 5 — seamlessly as they will run parallel to each other for five km. In this project, Corridor 3 and Corridor 5 intersect at Shollinganallur and Madhavaram and again at Thirumayilai. But Corridor 4 and Corridor 5 have four transit stations as the alignment runs along the same direction for about 5 km, with one corridor running above the other. The double-decker stretch will include four stations built at two levels — Alwarthirunagar, Valasaravakkam, Karambakkam and Alapakkam. Corridor 4 will be on the first level and will be constructed at 13.5 meters above the ground and corridor 5 will be raised above this level at a height of 21 meters. These two stretches will run with shared pillars for 5 km and there will be a common concourse (ticketing level) and two different platforms. The advantage is to make commuters from Porur travel quickly to places like Adyar, Mylapore, Shollinganallur, Taramani, Madhavaram, Retteri, Majambakkam and CMBT.