Work to commence as soon as first tranche of loan from JICA comes through; CMRL confident that any shortfall can be met by State govt.

The Chennai Metro Rail will not wait to get the Centre’s approval to begin Phase II, highly placed sources said.

As soon as the first tranche of a loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) comes through, the Chennai Metro Rail will start construction.

“There are two kinds of approval; even before approaching JICA, we needed a specific approval from the Centre, which we have obviously got, and then proceeded with the talks with JICA. Then, there is a second approval, but we will not wait for it this time [for Phase II], as the majority of the fund comes as loan from JICA. We expect that the formal sanction from JICA will come in another month, and as soon as the initial instalment of the loan comes through, we will immediately commence construction work,” a source said.

The Chennai Metro Rail’s Phase I extension project — which covers 9 km of North Chennai alone from Washermanpet to Wimco Nagar — waited years to get an approval from the Centre.

The State government gave its nod for this project in 2010 but the Centre’s sanction came only in 2016.

Estimated cost

The Phase II project is estimated to cost ₹80,000 crore; a huge part of this will come as a loan from JICA, about 20-25% funding from the State and the rest from the Centre.

State funding

“Assuming the approval doesn’t come even by the time we exhaust the other funds, we can get the remaining 20% also from the State. It shouldn’t be a problem,” a source said.

The project, when completed, will connect almost every other part of the city; it runs for nearly 108 km and has 116 stations. There will be three corridors in Phase II project: Madhavaram to Siruseri, Madhavaram to Shollinganallur and CMBT to Light House. Since it is a mammoth project, two stretches — Mad havaram to CMBT and Madhavaram to Shollinganallur — will be constructed at first; this will alone will cover about 50 km and cost Chennai Metro Rail nearly ₹44,000 crore.

Soil tests on

At present, Chennai Metro Rail has been doing soil tests across the city in several areas, including Madhavaram, Purasawalkam and Taramani; this process is essential and always carried out before the construction work, as it helps in knowing the geological conditions existing underneath. In a few weeks, they will also begin work on detailed design for the three corridors.

This design will show the precise location of every station and the roads and streets through which the Chennai Metro Rail will travel through.