Nearly 40 percent of Chennai Metro Rail’s phase II project has been completed so far in the city.

The 118.9 km phase II project implemented in the city at a cost of Rs 63,246 crore has been designed in such a way so as to provide access to faster means of commuting in the city. There are three corridors — Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5).

Responding to a question of DMK MP Kalanidhi Veeraswamy in Lok Sabha early this month, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Tokhan Sahu said, “Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), which is Special Purpose Vehicle for implementation of Chennai Phase-2 project has informed physical and financial progress of phase-2 project as 40.41% and 32.74% respectively.”

The phase II project with 128 stations has elevated and underground sections in all three corridors. The first stretch which will be available for passenger access and train services is the elevated 9 km section from Poonamallee to Porur of corridor 4. While the elevated stretches have made better progress so far, in the underground section, only about 19 km of 50.5 km of tunnelling has been finished as of now.

“We are targeting December 2025 for the Poonamallee – Porur stretch and the stations and track work is going on now. Following that, in a couple of months, an extension of this stretch, from Porur to Kodambakkam will become operational,” an official said.

Underground sections take time for completion. Also, corridor 3 which is predominantly underground faced a major setback since a tender for constructing stations had to be cancelled early on in the project. As a result, the underground stretches in this corridor and a small section in corridor 5 are falling behind schedule.