Not a smooth ride for Metro rail

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

It was not a smooth ride for Chennai Metro rail this year. There were several hiccups as the project was enmeshed in series of controversies over heritage sites, legal battles and accident in worksite.

First it was the demolition of the rear portion of the 130 year old  P Orr & Sons building on Anna salai in March this year that sparked up a controversy and a legal battle. Interestingly, Madras High court dismissed the public interest litigation filed by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) against the demolition and censured the trust and fined it Rs 5 lakh for the litigation that stalled work on the transit system.

But the court victory was not the end of all trouble for Metro Rail as questions began to be raised over the safety of heritage building again when 14-storeyed Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) building on Anna Salai developed cracks. This resulted in CMRL installing instruments on all the buildings near its sites to check any possible damage to them due to the construction work.

But the biggest test for Chennai Metro rail came when it was hit by two accidents at its worksite. One on a busy stretch in July this year when a scaffolding at the Vadapalani metro station site gave way as concrete was poured to build a ten-feet-long arm on the main pillar and the other one that nearly put the brakes on crane-related work when a migrant labourer was killed and six others were injured in an accident at a construction site near Pachaiyappas College on the busy Poonamalle High Road on August.

The accident prompted metro rail to order safety audits in all its 32 sites. An enquiry was also ordered which blamed human error.

Amidst all these challenges, Metro rail also began burrowing beneath the city using the Chinese and German tunnel boring machines. The inauguration of the tunneling work at Nehru Park in Chetpet was a low key affair due to the series of accidents in last one month.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure to berth coaches in the metro rail depot in Koyambedu is expected to be ready by March end with first train, which consists of four coaches, is expected to arrive in the depot, spread over an area of 26 hectares of land, during the period. It is believed the work on the depot would be completed by December 2013 when the first trail run is expected to take place on the elevated stretch.

The mock-up model of metro rail has reached Chennai shores and it will be housed at Sri city, a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) located near Tada in Andhra Pradesh where CMRL rakes are being built.

Interestingly, a study is also being conducted by Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority to assess development along metro rail corridor. There are also plans to integrate upcoming metro rail stations with existing modes of public transportation and develop feeder bus stops at the railway stations.