Preliminary work on CMRL’s longest 108-km stretch to begin in April

CMRL, which has invited bids for corridors 3 and 5 of phase-II of the project, would issue work order immediately after finalising the contractor on March 6. 

Unlike in phase-I, metro could execute three-corridor network of the second phase in small packages, as it did in a few instances in phase-1. Saidapet–DMS underground tunneling and stations plus a few elevated stations in the now functional Eekatuthangal-Airport stretches of phase-I were retendered and awarded as small packages after CMRL terminated the original contracts of firms, which overshot the deadline and even deserted the project midway. 

Now, CMRL has floated bids in small packages after big-ticket projects of phase-I awarded to a few construction majors suffered inordinate delay. 

Bids for the design and soil test for the second phase of Chennai Metro Rail’s corridors 3 and 5, which is estimated to be executed at a cost of Rs 86,000 crore in around five years, have been floated even as the talks between CMRL and JICA (Japanese international cooperation agency) continue.

Preliminary works could begin around April just about the time CMRL inks the pact with JICA. As on date, bids have been floated separately for preliminary works of stretches extending from Madhavaram Milk Colony to Thousand Lights, Shastri Nagar, Pattalam and Tharamani Road Junction to Sholinganallur and Shastri Nagar to CMBT. If CMRL sources are to be believed, detailed project report of extension of Corridor 4 from CMBT to Poonamallee via Virugambakkam, Valasarawakkam and Porur could also be sent for the approval of the government by April, the same time preliminary works of corridors 3 and 5 would commence. As per the existing alignment, corridor 4 would only run from Light House to CMBT.