The much-awaited underground section of the Chennai Metro Line was finally inaugurated on Saturday, May 13 by Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami. Stretching from Thirumangalam through to Nehru Park, the metro line covers a distance of about 7 km.
The Chennai Metro Rail project was launched in 2012 on a budget of Rs 14,600 crore. Its first service stretching from Koyambedu to Alandur began operating in June 2015, while its second stretch routing from Little Mount to Chennai Airport commenced in September 2016. Both these latter services are overground metro systems.
At Chennai’s first underground metro, platform screen doors (PSD) have been installed on the stations in an effort to forestall suicide attempts, which have seen a rise in metro rail systems in both Chennai and Delhi. These doors will only open along with the doors of the train, and thus block the commuters’ access to the tracks.
Since the underground line lacks telecom transmitters as of now, commuters would have to do without mobile connectivity. Presently, only two out of four entry and exit points on the stations along the stretch are to remain open, since not a lot of footfall is to be expected in the first days of the metro’s being in operation.