Two Chennai Metro Sections Inaugurated to AG-DMS and Central
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday inaugurated two key underground sections of Chennai Metro’s 45.1 km Phase 1 project at a ceremony held at Egmore Station. Both sections with 6 new stations extend the metro’s reach deeper into the city’s historic core and add another 7.4 km of route length to make the system’s operational network length 35.3 km long.
Green Line: Nehru Park – Central (2.6 km)
New Stations: Egmore and Central
This section was built by L&T – SUCG JV (Nehru Park – Egmore; Package UAA04 ) and Afcons Infrastructure (Egmore – Central; Package UAA01), and the final TBM breakthrough was achieved in December 2016.
Trial runs (testing) on this section began in January 2018 and the Commissioner of Metro Railways Safety (CMRS), Shri K.A. Manoharan, from the Indian Railways’ Southern Circle inspected it between May 14-15 (see images).
Nehru Park – Central section of Chennai Metro – view Chennai Metro Phase 1 map & info
Blue Line: Little Mount – AG-DMS (4.8 km)
New Stations: Saidapet, Nandanam, Teynampet and AG-DMS
This section was originally awarded to the Gammon – Mosmetrostroy JV but was abandoned in May 2015 due to financial issues right before the package’s last 2 TBM breakthroughs. Afcons Infrastructure was roped in by CMRL to perform the section’s final TBM breakthrough in September 2015, and around the same time CMRL awarded a contract to Larsen & Toubro for completing all balance/pending civil work at the 4 stations.
Trial runs down the Saidapet Ramp through this section’s tunnels to AG-DMS began in March 2018. The CMRS inspected it between May 18-19 (see images), and soon after issued a certificate declaring both sections of the Green & Blue lines to be fit for operations subject to the completion of pending finishing work at all stations.
Little Mount – AG-DMS section of Chennai Metro – view Chennai Metro Phase 1 map & info
Some Images –
AG-DMS Station lit up on Thursday night – Photo Copyright: Deccan Chronicle
Photo Copyright: Prince Jebakumar
Photo Copyright: Sunita Sekar
Flagged off – Photo Copyright: IANS/ProKerala
One of Egmore Station’s entrances (venue for launch event) – Photo Copyright: Chennai Connect
Egmore Station – Photo Copyright: IANS/ProKerala
Egmore Station’s Control Room – Photo Copyright: IANS/ProKerala
A good sniffer boy spotted – Photo Copyright: IANS/ProKerala
Photo Copyright: IANS/ProKerala
Photo Copyright: Arun Sankar/AFP/Getty Images
New stations lit up inside the train’s display map – Photo Copyright: George Davis
Some Videos–
A comprehensive 19:40 minute long video by a rail fan –
Key Takeaways –
• Chennai Metro’s network at 35.3 km (see operational map) is now larger than Kolkata’s 28.1 km and Hyderabad’s 29.8 km metro networks, making it the third largest in the country after Delhi’s 252.5 km and Bangalore’s 42.3 km systems.
• The Green Line is now entirely operational. End to end, from St. Thomas Mount to Central it covers a distance of about 22 kms.
• The Blue Line is now 13.4 km long and only about 9.80 km of route length, from AG-DMS to Washermenpet, is left to be opened in Phase 1.
• CMRL plans to run trains with a headway of five minutes (instead of the present 7 mins) during rush hour and at 10 minutes during off-peak hours. They plan to increase train frequency if ridership picks up from the present average ridership of 35,000 on weekends and 30,000 on weekdays.
• CMRL will be giving free rides on the entire network until Saturday night. This is great to give local residents a feel of the metro system, but high fares (see revised fare chart) after this promo period ends will continue to dissuade travelers from riding regularly, especially when alternate convenient modes of suburban rail & bus systems are available. I believe scenes like this will continue until a much-needed fare correction takes place.
For more updates, check out the Chennai section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
When is the remaining 5.5 km section expected to be opened?
As per TN CM by year end phase 1 will be complete..
It’s not just AG DMS to Central. The stretch from Washermanpet to Central is also yet to be opened in Blue line, Phase 1.
Any Updates on Mumbai Metro??
Tomorrow 25 km of metro line will be added to delhi metro
Bro.. Magenta Line is inaugurated today.. Any idea to post an article about it.
Please come back!!! We have pretty much no other site to get reliable Indian metro news… I can’t bear to read so many of the other inaccurate articles.
Looks like you gave up on this website or you are seriously busy in some other stuff. Hope to see you back soon.
Have gave up on this website bro really missing ur timely updates looks like u have quit it
Hi. It’s been quite some time now TMRG! I only hope that you are fit and healthy, be it be whatever you are upto these days. If you don’t intend to continue with this please leave a closure for your followers. It will save us from the constant need to visit here for any possible updates. Good luck bro. Thx
Delhi metro’s Pink line (from South Campus to Lajpat Nagar) inspection on 23 July.. https://twitter.com/DelhiMetroNCR/status/1018054570029690885
Aug 6 is the opening date..
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/real-estate/delhi-metro-pink-line-second-phase-of-the-ring-road-line-to-open-for-public-on-august-6-2783741.html
Please TMRG.. take few minutes out and tell us whether you will be back or are you leaving the website. But dont keep us in the dark.
Chennai 35.3 km. Ridership 30,000 to 35000. Kolkata metro 28.1 km . Ridership about 7,00,000 on weekdays and about 4,00,000 -5,00,000 on Sundays. Kolkata fares economical though minimum fare very low. Chennai metro high fares, very poor ridership. Unfortunately metro riders have no lobbys like industrialists, agriculturalists etc. Industrialists gets bank loans and one knows the kind of Nirav Modi, Mehul chowksi, vijaya Malaya . Agricultural loan waivers never reaches for people they are intended for. At these high fares Chennai metro will be bleeding without benefit to people. Kolkata metro also loses money but benefits huge number of people. Govt has to realize that transport sector like metro needs subsidy, without which they are doomed. And this subsidy will really benefit people.
Another leg of the “White Elephant” starts preliminary trials.
https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/metro-to-run-loco-to-test-anna-salai-stretch/article24764521.ece
The finial leg of the phase 1 of the Chennai Metro is almost ready and mostly will be operational by the beginning of next year. What remains to be seen will it be able to attract more passengers from the congested Anna Salai stretch.
With high fares it may not be able to transfer the people who currently use the sub-urban and MRTS trains which has 2 parallel lines to this stretch and whose fare is just Rs.5 for the length covered by the Metro. We just hope that CMRL reduces it’s fare and make it competitive with the bus fares at least.
Dear TMRG,
After getting a lot of us addicted to your resourceful, highly reliable, informative and usability rich updates, I feel it’s unfair if you continue to leave us in the dark. I have a gut feeling you’re upto something really interesting and we’ll all soon see light at the end of this ‘TMRG’ tunnel 🙂
Wherefore art thou, Metro Rail Guy? We love you dearly and hope you come back soon in time for the full inauguration of the Phase-1 Chennai Metro in February 2019.