The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) is gearing up to acquire land on Avinashi Road and Coimbatore-Sathyamangalam road in March 2025 for the metro rail project. M A Siddique, managing director, CMRL, said they were hopeful that the Union govt would approve the metro rail projects in Coimbatore and Madurai soon.
“We are going to issue a notification for the land acquisition very soon. Once the Union govt gives a nod for the project, we will start the acquisition work. We will complete the project in three years from the date of commencement,” Siddique said.
He said the metro train would have only three coaches, which would be enough for the next 40 to 50 years. “More than 700 people could travel in the train at a time. In the first phase, metro rail infrastructure will be set up from Ukkadam bus stand to Neelambur integrated station via the airport for a stretch of 20.4 kilometres (Corridor-I) and Coimbatore railway junction to Valiyampalayam Pirivu for a stretch of 14.4 kilometres (Corridor-II).”
Siddique said the metro rail track would be laid for a total length of 34.8 kilometres in the first phase. “We have to acquire 10 hectares of land exclusively for the first two corridors The land acquisition will take at least 1.5 to two years. We have started preliminary work and will issue notification to the landowners soon.”
Pointing out that it would be an elevated metro corridor, he said the CMRL was trying to reduce the extent of land to be acquired. He said the plan was to construct pillars on the edge of the service road on Avinashi Road from Anna Statue to Neelambur. Each pillar would be at a distance of 30 metres, he said.
“The metro rail will take a U-turn at Neelambur and head towards the airport. We have plans to extend the Corridor-I to L&T bypass road from Neelambur in the future. The metro rail project will also cover Mettupalayam Road and Trichy Road in the due course of time,” Siddique said.
The CMRL is planning to implement the project with the help of local body and railway authorities. “Bus stands, railway stations and airports are major public transport systems. We will develop a system integrating them all. We will make some changes to the detailed project report in the future to make the project benefit all people,” he said.
According to Siddique, the CMRL would work with the National Highways (NH) on Sathyamangalam Road. “The NH department is planning to construct a flyover at Saravanampatti. So, the metro will be operated on level-I till Saravanampatti. In the flyover area, the metro will travel on level-II, that is, above the flyover. “We are going to construct the pillars at the centre of Coimbatore-Sathyamangalam road for Corridor-II.”
The metro train project will be level-II on the entire Avinashi Road stretch. Each and every metro station will have lift and escalator facilities.
Siddique said the metro rail project in Coimbatore would be completed earlier than the Madurai metro rail project.
