According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited, the Phase II project has 69.05 km of underground stretches spread over its three corridors.
| Photo Credit: M. SRINATH
Nearly 48% of tunnelling for the underground network of Chennai Metro Rail’s 118.9-km Phase II project has been completed so far. In the last three days, three tunnel boring machines (TBM) completed drilling on various stretches and made breakthroughs.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the project has 69.05 km of underground stretches spread over the three corridors — Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Poonamallee to Light House (corridor 4), and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5). Of this, tunnelling on 33.22 km has been completed so far.
In the Phase II project, corridor 3 has the highest distance of underground stretches at 43.04 km, and tunnelling on 22.63 km has been completed. While about 62% tunnelling has been done so far on corridor 4, CMRL has carried out 27% of tunnelling on corridor 5.
In the past three days, tunnelling has been completed on the Chetpet-Kilpauk Medical College (KMC), Villivakkam Railway Station-Villivakkam Bus Terminus, and Royapettah-Radhakrishnan Salai stretches.
On the Chetpet-KMC stretch, the machine bored a distance of 685 metres under five railway tracks near the Chetpet station, under the Chetpet Eco Park, and the KMC Hospital. The machine also drilled 6.1 metres below the Phase I tunnel. On the Villivakkam Railway Station-Villivakkam Bus Terminus stretch, the tunnelling distance was 601 metres, and on this section too, the TBM had to bore under five railway tracks of the Villivakkam station. The TBM that bored on the Royapettah-Radhakrishnan Salai stretch covered a distance of 915 metres, and it drilled under many structures on Royapettah High Road, including Peters Bridge, the EPFO building, and a school.
Published – October 02, 2026 08:46 pm IST
