Platform screen doors to be installed in elevated and underground stations in Chennai Metro’s phase 2 project

Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Company Ltd. has emerged the lowest bidder for installing platform screen doors (PSD) in a section of Chennai Metro Rail’s Phase 2 project. Commuters have better safety when these doors are installed in the platform levels of stations since it will prevent them from crossing tracks.

Zhuzhou CRRC Times Electric Company Ltd. has bagged a contract to install platform screen doors (PSD) in a section of Chennai Metro Rail’s Phase 2 project. Commuters have better safety when these doors are installed at the platform levels of stations, since it prevents them from crossing tracks.

For the first time, the city’s mass rapid transit system will see these protective doors installed in both elevated and underground stations in the ₹61,843 crore Phase 2 project. CMRL has awarded this contract at a cost of ₹100 crore, according to a press release.

As of now, in the currently functional Phase 1 and Phase 1 extension projects of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd., platform screen doors have been installed only in underground stations. These doors act as safety fencing and are fixed at the platform levels of stations. They are glass doors which open only when the train arrives, in sync with the train doors.

According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL), the contract is for corridor 4 of the phase II project between Poonamallee and Light House, which is one of the three corridors planned in this project. The two other corridors which constitute a part of the 118.9-km Phase 2 project are Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5).

“There have been a few instances of commuters trying to cross the track in the elevated stations of the Phase 1 project but with these doors fixed, we won’t have such issues in the Phase 2 project. No one will be able to jump or fall on the tracks. In the underground stations that are air conditioned, they aid in reducing power consumption too,” an official said.

The firm will have to provide for a combination of both half-height PSDs (for elevated stretches) and full height PSDs (for underground stretches) for the corridor 4. While at the elevated stretch between Poonamallee and Power House, half-height PSDs will be installed, in the underground stretch from Kodambakkam till Light House, full height PSDs will be put in place.

The half-height and full height doors will have a length of 1,500 and 2,000 mm respectively. “A portion of the Poonamallee to Light House corridor, Poonamallee to Power House, will be made functional first, by the end of 2025, and this is when commuters will have an opportunity to see the half-height doors,” the official added.