First underground stretch to be opened in 6 months: CMRL

Speaking to DTNext on the sidelines of launch of commercial service on Airport-Little Mount stretch, Rajeev Narayan Dwivedi, Director (Projects) CMRL said, “We are planning to do it before the year-end. But the pending works and trials might require five to six months.” He also added Washermanpet-Saidapet stretch followed by the short Chennai Central-Egmore link would get going in a phased manner and the entire 45 km network will be fully operational by December 2017. 

The commissioner of Metro Rail safety would be inspecting the 1.2 km stretch from Alandur to St Thomas Mount on Thursday morning. Refusing to divulge details of tentative launch of commercial service on the stretch, Dwivedi said, “We have to wait for the CMRS feedback. If the commissioner feels some areas need improvement, we ought to do it. We will not operate trains if the stretch is not 100 percent fit for operation.” 

Feeder services to newly opened stations would be made available in six months. “In principle, feeder service has to be provided to new stations, but, we will watch passenger flow, compare it with our previous surveys and then decide on the service requirement,” the project director said.