Chennai Metro opens 10 km stretch AG-DMS to Washermenpet for public

Tirupur (Urban Transport News): The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) on February 10, 2019 (Sunday) opened the last stretch covering a 10 km distance between AG-DMS and Washermenpet Metro of Blue Line of Chennai Metro Rail Project.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Tamilnadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has inaugurated the section through video conferencing from Tirupur, Tamilnadu in presence of Governor of Tamil Nadu, Banwarilal Purohit, Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam and other dignitaries.

The construction of phase I of Chennai Metro Rail project built at a cost of ₹14,600 crores has been on for nearly seven years now; this final 10 km stretch from AG-DMS to Washermanpet will be entirely underground and have total 8 stations at Washermanpet, Mannady, Madras High Court, Chennai Central, Government Estate, LIC, Thousand Lights and AG-DMS. The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) has given his safety clearance to this section in the last week of January.

After the opening of this stretch, metro commuters can directly take a ride from Washermanpet Metro to Chennai airport, a distance of nearly 21 km in about 45 minutes. This section will also provide commuters from north Chennai, connectivity with other transport hubs like Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, and CMBT, and allows them to switch from Chennai Metro to other modes of transport like bus, suburban or MRTS.

At Chennai Central Metro Station, Minister of State (Independent Incharge) for Housing & Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Fisheries, Personnel and Administrative Reforms, D.Jayakumar, Minister for Social Welfare, Dr. V. Saroja, Minister for Industries, M.C. Sampath. participated in the video conference function and undertook a metro ride post-inauguration from Chennai Central to AG-DMS via Washermenpet.

In this function and the metro ride, Consul General of Japan Kojiro Uchiyama, Chief Representative JICA India Katsuo Matsumoto, Members of Parliament S.R. Vijayakumar, T.G. Venkatesh Babu, Dr. J. Jayavardhan and Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Special Initiatives Department, Dr. T.V. Somanathan, I.A.S, OSD(UT), Ex.Officio Jt. Secretary MOHUA, Mukund Kumar Sinha, Director (Systems & Operations), L. Narasim Prasad, Director (Finance), Sujatha Jayaraj, Director (Projects).

Rajeev Narayan Dwivedi also participated. Since 2015, the Chennai 45 km network has been opened in seven stretches- 1) Koyambedu to Alandur (June 2015) 2) Little Mount to Chennai airport (September 2016) 3) Alandur to St. Thomas Mount (October 2016) 4) Koyambedu to Nehru Park (May 2017) 5) Nehru Park to Chennai Central (May 2018) 6) Little Mount to AG-DMS (May 2018) 7) AG-DMS to Washermanpet (February 2019)