Soon, Purasawalkam is all set to witness tunnelling work for Chennai Metro Rail’s phase II project that is being built across the city at an estimated cost of ₹61,843 crore.
A tunnelling boring machine (TBM) is likely to be launched at Purasawalkam by next month and it will drill towards Kellys. The entire length of the phase II project is 116 km and it encompasses three corridors — Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5). Purasawalkam to Kellys, an underground stretch, is a small section of the corridor 3.
Tunnelling work first started for the phase II project in Madhavaram in October 2022 and subsequently multiple machines have been put to work in different locations in all three corridors since then.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), at Purasawalkam, the base slab work has been finished in the station and the other related work are underway now to arrange for starting the TBM in this construction site.
“This TBM has to drill for distance of about 250-300 metres and hence, the TBM may not take much time to reach Kellys. We also don’t foresee any challenging geological conditions in this stretch and the drilling work is expected to be completed in time,” an official said.
Meanwhile, a few days back, another TBM ‘Anaimalai’ which began boring at Ayanavaram in October last year made a breakthrough at Otteri station. The machine bored 925 metres and reached the Otteri station. Officials had said, though the TBM had arrived at Otteri sometime back itself, they waited for the station box to be ready to receive it.
