Chennai Metro’s Alandur – STM Section to be Converted in Phase 2

In Chennai Metro’s upcoming 118.90 km Phase 2 project, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL) has two very interesting plans in place for the new 47 km Line-5 which will connect Madhavaram and Sholinganallur through 48 stations.

Among them, they plan to convert the Phase 1 project’s existing Green Line viaduct between Alandur Station and St. Thomas Mount Station – a distance of 980 meters – to ultimately carry Line-5 (color not finalized) and serve its new trains.

This conversion will result in the Green Line terminating at Alandur Station where a new station box is going to be built for Line-5 just east of the existing blue & green lines’ station box. This will result in the station becoming a triple-line interchange, similar to Delhi Metro’s existing Kashmere Gate Station and Kolkata Metro’s planned Esplanade Station.

CMRL already runs Alstom trains between the Airport and CMBT through Alandur via a rake interchange, so there’s room for it ‘formally’ extending south-westward to the airport.

Phase 1 (Built) and Phase 2 (Planned) – view Chennai Metro Phase 2 info & map

The second plan is to share a common alignment, via a double-decker viaduct, with the Southern Railway-run Chennai MRTS from St. Thomas Mount Station (chainage 31.178) to just north of Adambakkam Station (chainage 31.657) – a distance of 479 meters. That section was anyways going to see large scale land acquisition for the MRTS project, so this combined viaduct will kill two birds with one stone.

CMRL had invited bids for this section on January 22 as part of Package C5-ECV-02 (CMBT – Puzhuthivakkam) and that had skipped mentioning St. Thomas Mount Station in its scope. Reader Anand in the comments was quick to point out this oddity and later also described the plans, which is confirmed by the tender drawing below.

Plans for St Thomas Mount Station (view large)

To achieve the conversion, I reckon CMRL in 2024-25 will terminate services on the Green Line between Alandur and St. Thomas Mount to have its contractors take up civil and system integration works between Line-5’s new corridor and Green Line’s existing corridor.

For more updates, check out my Home Page!

– TMRG

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written by

Global traveler who prefers mass rapid transit

31 Responses to "Chennai Metro’s Alandur – STM Section to be Converted in Phase 2"

  1. Karanvir says:

    Hey DMRC should have done the same for Botanical Garden to Noida line. From blue to magenta would have made it more circular.

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      I would have liked that as well. If the DMRC ever thought of pursuing this, I’m guessing the impact of stopping services on a 9 km section for an entire year, was probably what prevented them from pursuing this.

      Reply
  2. Shiv says:

    Patna metro elevated section line 1. Who got that project metro rail guy?

    Reply
  3. Dhyaneshwar says:

    Since you mentioned MRTS, will MRTS ever be taken over by Chennai Metro?

    Reply
    • Anand Asir A says:

      Not yet.but it was informed earlier that it may happen after completion of last 500m connectivity.
      But again it depends on new government now (we can ensure only after election)

      Reply
  4. Clevin Gomes says:

    Chennai MRTS is a Broad Gauge and Chennai Metro is Standard Gauge. How they can share with MRTS line since there is a Gauge Difference. On the other hand Multiple attempts were failed to acquire land btw St Thomas Mount and Adambakkam. So I don’t think it will be constructed anytime soon

    Reply
    • Subash says:

      Below the first image it says that it will be a double decker alignment.

      Reply
    • Venkatesan V says:

      Land acquisition for MRTS final approach is done & construction has already begun. And only the alignment is common between line 5 and MRTS not the viaduct ( it will be a double decker viaduct) .

      Reply
  5. Sathish says:

    Is possible to convert line 2 into line 5

    Reply
    • Anand Asir A says:

      It’s only the track merging portion in Alandur station and the rest is driverless signalling change which won’t support phase 1

      Reply
  6. Hrishikesh says:

    Who got tender for chennai metro…?

    Reply
  7. Anand Asir A says:

    TMG
    Thank you for mentioning me.
    I didn’t expect this at all.

    Reply
    • TMRG says:

      Cheers 🙂

      Reply
      • Anand Asir A says:

        TMRG,
        Any updates on Kilambakkam extension and Metro lite Velachery to Tambaram?

        Reply
        • TMRG says:

          Hi, nothing recent/new on them. DPR is being prepared for Kilambakkam extension. Land survey & other activities for it started in Sept 2020.

          Reply
          • SR says:

            They need to eventually extend this beyond Wimco Nager to the smart city Ponneri via industrial subs of Manali or Ennore
            Any future plans similar to this?

          • Arjun says:

            Today in local newspaper they put some details of DPR of kilambakkam extension.

            15.03 km line length, 46 feet height for viaduct, 14 stations.

          • Arjun says:

            That 14 stations are
            arumalaichavadi, pallavaram, godandam nagar, chromepet, mahalakshmi nagar, thiru.vi.ka nagar, tambaram, irumbuliyur, peerkankaranai, perungalathur, RMK nagar, vandalur, vandalur zoo, kilambakkam.

  8. Swamynathan says:

    Iam in Hyderabad and travelling by HMRL almost daily..Iam yet to experience Chennai Metro.Heard that its more expensive than travelling by Hyderabad metro.

    Reply
    • Subash says:

      Hyd metro’s constructon cost was way lower than Chennai’s as HMRL line was 100% above ground which is 4-6 times cheaper than underground lines, as Chennai chose to do underground for most of the innercity lines (both phase 1 & 2) to make it more sense in the longer term. hence the expensive tickets.

      Reply
  9. Kiran Venkatesh says:

    https://twitter.com/updates_tn/status/1497406800022237185?t=hteGo_TuemkKy_QT-_kxlg&s=19

    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/st-thomas-mount-station-is-chennais-next-big-thing-in-public-transport/articleshow/89839777.cms

    These links states two metro lines at St Thomas mount metro station.
    So from this whether both phase 2 corridor 5 madhavaram to Sholinganallur line and phase 1 green line Central metro to St Thomas mount metro get merged at St Thomas mount metro station through a rake interchange after alandur?

    Reply
  10. Pradeep says:

    The pillars that are being constructed for the MRTS in the 500 m section does not look like a double decker pillar which can support both MRTS and Metro .

    Reply

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