Operations Begin on Chennai Metro’s Alandur – St. Thomas Mount Stretch

This news came out of nowhere and the CMRL made no prior announcement to inform commuters.

Earlier today at 6 am, the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. started commercial operations on a small 1.30 km stretch between Alandur and St. Thomas Mount stations. This stretch was officially inaugurated last month along with the Airport-Little Mount line, but could not be opened earlier as the safety inspection by the Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) was pending.

This is a significant milestone as it marks the opening of all elevated portions of Chennai Metro’s 45 km Phase 1 project and takes the total length of the system a notch higher to 19.9 km. With the train cross-over (reversal) facility available at St. Thomas Mount, the CMRL is now also able to operate full fledged services between Ashok Nagar and Alandur, a distance of 3 km, utilizing both the up and down lines which was not possible until now.

The viaduct for this section of the 22 km Green Line was built by Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and like the Airport – Little Mount line which opened last month, a section of this stretch has also been covered with a red-white chequered canopy as it lies in the flight path of the nearby airport’s primary runway. The contract to build the St. Thomas Mount station was originally awarded to Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited (CCCL), but was terminated in 2014 due to tardy progress arising from cash-flow issues on the contractor’s end. In mid 2014, the Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) awarded a new contract to URC Constructions to finish the station’s balance works.

Location of St. Thomas Mount Station - view Chennai Metro map & information

Alignment of Alandur – St. Thomas Mount section – view Chennai Metro map & information

The St. Thomas Mount station is one of the largest stations on the line (see June construction update) and users here will be able to connect to the Beach – Chengalpattu section of the city’s vast Suburban Railway network and in the future with the MRTS’ 16 km Thirumayilai – St Thomas Mount line.

Photo Copyright: New Indian Express

St. Thomas Mount station – Photo Copyright: New Indian Express

Station signage -Source: Thanti TV

Station signage – Source: Thanti TV

Photo Copyright: Arvind Sridharan

Route map within the trains – Photo Copyright: Arvind Sridharan

chennaistm1

Photo Copyright: Umapathy Krishnamurthy

chennaistm2

Photo Copyright: Umapathy Krishnamurthy

chennaistm3

Photo Copyright: Umapathy Krishnamurthy

chennaistm4

Photo Copyright: Umapathy Krishnamurthy

Local media coverage:

For more updates, check out the Chennai section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG

written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

6 Responses to "Operations Begin on Chennai Metro’s Alandur – St. Thomas Mount Stretch"

  1. Anand says:

    Gr8 news! Hope direct link from CMBT To airport would be provided soon.Any update on that?

    Reply
  2. Arvind says:

    Quoting from The Hindu http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/st-thomas-mount-metro-station-opens-today/article9218335.ece

    Sources say, they have again considered creating a direct service for commuters from Koyambedu to Chennai airport but the plan has not been finalised yet.

    Lets wait and watch 🙂

    Reply
  3. Anand says:

    also cn you please update on MRTS mount extension status. Only after this is connected full mutli modal transport system ll take place effectively

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      There’s some demolition work going on at Jeevan Nagar – TNGO colony. It must be related to constructing the missing 500m link between Adambakkam and STM stations.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *