Tunnelling work in Purasawalkam to begin this month for Chennai Metro Rail’s phase II project

Purasawalkam gears up for Chennai Metro Rail phase II project with tunnel boring machines drilling underground network.

One of the most densely populated areas and one of the shopping centres in the city, Purasawalkam will see the giant tunnel boring machines drilling the earth to make an underground network for the Chennai Metro Rail’s phase II project. The work is all set to commence this month.

At ₹63,246 crore, the phase II project stretches to a length of 116 km of the city with three corridors —Madhavaram to Siruseri (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5). From Madhavaram, the corridor 3 passes via Moolakadai, Perambur, Purasawalkam, Chetpet, Nungambakkam, Royapettah, Thirumayilai, Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur, Sholinganallur and terminates at SIPCOT Siruseri.

A substantial part of this corridor will be an underground network from Madhavaram upto Thiruvanmiyur and the tunnelling work to create this infrastructure is already under way in multiple places, including Greenways Road, Adyar, Madhavaram, Ayanavaram and Royapettah.

Now, the tunnel boring machine (TBM) has been lowered at Purasawalkam. The machine is gearing for the launch in around mid-September, and will bore the earth towards Kellys. According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), since the area has several commercial establishments, residential localities and quite densely populated, they will take extra care while carrying out tunnelling to prevent any soil settlements.

“The instrumentation equipment and monitoring equipment will gauge the vibrations. Fortunately, since the soil conditions are not difficult to handle, we plan to complete the tunnelling work between Purasawalkam and Kellys, a distance of about 300 metres, in six months. Meanwhile, the work to construct a shaft at Kellys is in progress now,” an official said.

When the initial drive of the first machine is done, the second TBM will be brought, and it will create the second tunnel for the Purasawalkam-Kellys stretch. Next in line, the CMRL officials are preparing to start tunnelling work between Perambur Barracks Road and Purasawalkam as well. “A key water pipeline has to be shifted and based on the land availability and other issues, we will see if the TBM can be launched at Perambur Barracks or at Purasawalkam,” the official said.