Metro rail tunnelling in Royapettah, one of the congested localities in the core city, may commence in Sept. Officials said a tunnel boring machine, which is set to complete work near Adyar river, will be relaunched in Royapettah.
The locality will be linked in the 45.8km corridor-3 of phase-2 from Madhavaram Milk Colony in the north to Siruseri Sipcot in the south.“The tunnel boring machine (TBM) launching shaft is ready at Royapettah.
Once a TBM completes work in Adyar, it will be dismantled, refurbished, transported, reassembled and relaunched in Royapettah. We need time for the entire process, so we are targeting September to start tunneling in Royapettah,” a metrorail engineer at the site said. “Once launched in Royapettah, it will be retrieved in Thousand Lights.”
Officials said two TBMs at work on the Greenways Road to Adyar junction via Adyar river will complete tunnelling one after another by June. One of the machines will be taken to Royapettah.
Earlier, CMRL managing director M A Siddique said the 116.1km phase-2 will be opened to public in stages from 2025 to 2028. When construction of the periphery walls of the Royapettah underground station and the launching shaft began, engineers at the site said the construction on the busy Westcott Road-Peter’s Road junction was posing a challenge due to heavy traffic movement. It was also slowing down the work.
The station is planned below the junction, with YMCA grounds and Govt Royapettah Hospital on either side. Construction of the outer walls of the station had to be done by diverting traffic on one side of the road to build half of the station’s walls and then shift the work to the other side.
“After finishing work on one half of the road, we covered it with a slab to allow traffic while we start work on the other half,” an engineer said. The area where the metro rail work is underway is one of the congested, catering to heavy traffic throughout the day. With metro rail barricading a significant portion of the road, motorists are struggling to cross the area.
“The metro work is causing traffic congestion near Royapettah GH on Peter’s Road during peak hours. a traffic constable is posted there but there are too many vehicles converging at the junction under the flyover. This leads to a slowdown of traffic that enters Peter’s Road to reach Anna Salai from West Cott Road and also from Royapettah Police Station side. The Whites road is not usable as it is more or less closed. This also leads to a slowdown in traffic near the Clock Tower junction. Motorists try to avoid the area,” S Vikram, a Royapettah resident.
