55% of viaduct on Poonamallee-Porur corridor of Metro Rail completed

Nearly 55% of the viaduct work has been finished so far on the Poonamallee-Porur stretch of Chennai Metro Rail’s Phase 2 project. The stretch is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2025.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL), the construction of 316 pillars has been completed so far on this stretch and the contractor has been told to finish the rest of the work at the earliest. “The work is on track and we are holding inspections to ensure that the entire stretch is ready for passenger service before the end of 2025,” an official said. Meanwhile, the contractor will start laying the track on this stretch by next month and this work will be over by April next year if deadlines were met, he said.

While the 116-km Chennai Metro Rail’s Phase 2 project total cost is ₹61,843 crore, this 7.94 km stretch between Poonamallee and Porur will cost ₹1,147 crore. This stretch forms a part of 26.1-km Corridor 4 of the Phase 2 project from Light House to Poonamallee.

Sources said more manpower was required for executing the work along this stretch if it were to be completed in two years. “The civil work itself will take about a year at least. Only if they finish by then, can the installation of system begin and this process will take another year. Only if the number of workers is increased, the project can be wrapped up at the earliest. This is important because only then, the traffic congestion will reduce a bit,” an official said.

The 45.4-km Madhavaram-SIPCOT (via Thirumayilai) Corridor 3 and the 44.6-km Madhavaram-Sholinganallur (via Koyambedu) Corridor 3 are the two important components of the project.