Madurai Metro to have 27 stations, three will be underground

Madurai Metro to have 27 stations, three will be underground

Madurai Metro Rail Project that connects Tirumangalam with Othakadai will have 27 metro stations, one for every kilometre on the elevated structure and one for every 1.5 km in the underground structure, said Chennai Metro Rail Managing Director M.A. Siddique here on Wednesday.

He was addressing mediapersons at the Madurai Collectorate following a meeting with officials from various departments with regard to the project. He said that the detailed project report (DPR) would be prepared soon and the DPR for both Madurai and Coimbatore metro projects would be submitted to the government on July 15.

He said that out of the proposed 27 metro stations in Madurai, three stations would be underground. The underground stations would come up near Madurai railway junction / Periyar bus stand, Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple and Goripalayam. The station near the temple is likely to come up under North Masi street or North Avani Moola Street. These options were being explored, he said.

He allayed fears that the proposed metro line and station in the vicinity of the temple would not affect the heritage buildings, and also temple car processions. After the DPR is submitted to the government, approval obtained from the Centre and allocation of funds, the project would begin, he said.

He said that the construction of the elevated structure (27 km) would take 3.6 years to be completed, and the underground structure (5 km) would take 4.6 years. The officials conducted a field study of various places in the city where the project would be implemented. Collector M.S. Sangeetha; Chennai Metro Rail, Director (Projects) T. Archunan; Corporation Commissioner K.J. Praveen Kumar; District Revenue Officer R. Sakthivel and other government officials were present at the meeting.