Tunnelling on Chennai's OMR only in November 2024

CHENNAI: Metro rail tunneling in Thiruvanmiyur, a key station linking the OMR IT corridor with the city core localities, may begin only at the end of next year as heavy vehicular traffic is posing a challenge in the construction. The peripheral walls of underground Thiruvanmiyur metro station and the shafts to deploy and retrieve the tunnel boring machines must be built under OMR road. At present, a portion of the OMR near Thiruvanmiyur MRTS has been barricaded and construction of half of the Thiruvanmiyur underground station’s peripheral walls and shaft is underway. Once completed, the other side of the road will be taken over for construction of the rest of the station walls and the shafts. Thiruvanmiyur is part of the 45.8km corridor-3 of phase-2 from Madhavaram Milk Colony to Siruseri Sipcot.
L Girirajan, CMRL spokesperson said the area available for station work in Thiruvanmiyur on OMR is limited as portion of the road is left for diverting the high volume of vehicular traffic. “Thiruvanmiyur station shafts will be ready to start tunneling by November 2024,” he said.
Thiruvanmiyur is part of the contract to build twin tunnels for 12km from Kellys to Taramani Road junction in four years. Earlier, M A Siddique, managing director, CMRL said the 118.1km phase-2 will be ready in stages from 2026 to 2028.
Officials said the high vehicular movement on OMR will, however, not delay the project as the traffic issue on OMR was factored in during the planning stage.
“There were several factors affecting the metro Railway construction in a busy city like Chennai. Traffic is one of them. There are more challenges in constructing an underground metro station on the road than a metro station off the road. The initial working programme for the station's construction was prepared considering all these challenges,” Girirajan said. “Thiruvanmiyur station is located strategically to cater to many stakeholders nearby. Hence, though traffic is an issue during the construction phase, in the long run it will help the people commuting in metro trains,” he added.