Chennai Metro decides to remove six stations from Phase 2 corridors

Chennai, India (Metro Rail Today): The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has decided to remove six metro stations from Phase 2 of Chennai Metro Rail Project. These six stations were planned to built at a distance of less than 750m from the next stop in Corridor 3 & 4. 

These six stations were planned at Doveton Junction, Foreshore Estate, Natesan Park, Meenakshi College and Thapal Petti and at St Joseph's College. Out of, first five are underground and last one is elevated. Due to this decision, the authority will save about Rs 1,200 crore. 

Under Phase 2 of Chennai Metro, a total of 128 stations (including 48 underground stations) were planned to built on 118.9 kilometres network at an estimated cost of Rs 61,843 crore by 2026. 

The reason to remove six stations are short distance and sharp curve. The stations are generally planned for every 1km for easy access as well as for emergency evacuation.

"While the short distance from the nearest stations was a reason for removing them, the proposed one at Thapal Petti in Madhavaram would have had a sharp curve that could be challenging to maintain. We will save around Rs 450 crore by removing Thapal Petti and Meenakshi College," said L Girirajan, spokesperson, CMRL, TOI reported. 

While those proposed at Thapal Petti, Doveton and St Joseph's College are on the 45.8km long Corridor 3 (Madhavaram Milk Colony-Siruseri Sipcot), the ones at Foreshore Estate, Natesan Park and Meenakshi College are on the 26.1-km Corridor 4 (Lighthouse-Poonamallee Bypass).

While Madhavaram Milk Colony and Murari Hospital stations are 980m and 684m from the one at Thapal Petti, the one at Meenakshi College is 725m and 1,040m from Kodambakkam and Power House stations. On OMR, St Joseph's College station is 827m from Sathyabhama University and 805m from Semmencheri.
At T Nagar, Natesan Park station, planned near a school on Venkatanarayana Road, is around 632m from Panagal Park metro and 625m from Nandanam metro. At Marina Beach, Lighthouse station is 786m from Foreshore Estate station which in turn is 958m from the next station at Kutchery Road.

In phase-1, Central and Government Estate station are 1.5km from each other and an emergency shaft was built inside May Day Park at Chintadripet, between the two stations, for emergency evacuation. Sources said similar structures may be built in place of the stations removed in phase-2.

CMRL earlier made changes to reduce project cost from Rs 89,000 crore to Rs 61,843 crore including scrapping the maintenance depot planned at Siruseri SIPCOT and replacing it with stabling lines for parking trains. It also changed a few stations from underground to elevated and trimmed the size of the stations by 25% compared to stations in phase-1.

For more details, please explore Chennai Metro page of Metro Rail Today.