CMRL Invites Bids for Chennai Metro’s Washermenpet – Korrukupet Extension

The Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) has invited bids for constructing the ~2.4 km underground extension of the Airport-Washermenpet line to Korrukupet! This line which includes 2 underground stations at Sir Theagaraya College and Korrukupet is part of the 9 km extension from Washermenpet to Wimco Nagar that was approved by the Ministry of Urban Development barely 2 weeks ago.

Excerpt from the notice inviting tenders:

Design Validation and Construction of works of underground station Boxes DWall at Sir Thiyagaraya College (CH:1016.000m) & Korrukupet (CH:2035.000m) Station, Including Associated Cut-Cover And Bored TBM Tunnels

The pre-bid meeting with interested civil infra companies will take place on January 12, 2016 and the last date submitting bids is 2 pm on February 4. On the same day, the CMRL will open the bids at 3 pm to find out the lowest bidder who will most likely go on to be awarded the contract.

Map:

Alignment of Washermenpet – Korrukupet section of the 9 km extension to Wimco Nagar

This 2.4 km extension comes under contract UAA08 and will include a ramp between Korukkupet and Tondiarpet. North of the ramp, the line will be elevated for which I expect tenders to be invited very soon.

As a reminder, while contracts UAA01-05 deal with underground construction (tunneling & station works), UAA06 deals with the tunnel ventilation system (awarded to Emirates Trading Agency-ETA Engineering in March 2011) and UAA07 deals with the air conditioning system at underground stations (awarded to Voltas Ltd. in March 2011).

The Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (CMRL) is currently identifying land/properties which will be acquired for road widening along the entire extension to Wimco Nagar. They’re also exploring the possibility of building a depot somewhere along this stretch in addition to another depot planned south of the Airport. Since the land near the airport is owned by the Ministry of Defence, getting an approval for that will not be easy.

After this 9 km extension to Wimco Nagar opens in 2020, the line from the Airport to Wimco Nagar will become 32.061 km long!

For more updates on Chennai’s metro, check out the Chennai section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG