Chennai Metro Project

[Anniyan]

Spots for metro rail stations identified

The locations of stations along the two metro railway lines — one between Washermenpet and the airport and the other between Fort station and St. Thomas Mount — have been finalised. The project work is expected to begin in 2008-09. It is to be ready in six years.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (DMRC) has identified the land required for them and drawn up the building footprint and alignment. Detailed drawings showing the location along the road and within a given property are ready.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the funding agency, has appointed an independent consultant to study the proposal before granting its final approval and releasing funds. The government will issue land acquisition notices after the proposal is fully and finally approved. The architectural design of the stations will also be taken up at that point.

The total length of the metro line is 46.5 km and the project cost is Rs.9,575 crore. A length of about 20 km will be underground and the remaining part will be on elevated structures. The State government has formed the Chennai Metro Rail Company to execute the project, and the DMRC will be associated with the project till completion.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/16/stor...1650140100.htm

[barrykul]

Are the MRTS and local suburban lines going to be folded into Chennai Metro or are these things going to be run by IR with their dilapidated coaches and engines?

[Raj_network]

I read the news some time back that Metro HQ will be coming at old Central Jail complex, Central.

[Subra]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/2955314.cms

NEW DELHI: With the Centre giving the green signal, Chennai will soon join the cities like Delhi and Kolkata which have a metro rail system.

The Planning Commission has given the "in-principle" approval to Tamil Nadu government's Metro Rail project for Chennai to be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 9,757 crore. Once the project is completed, it is expected to solve to a great extent the traffic congestion in the fast-growing metro.

The ambitious project, according to an urban development ministry official, is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2012.

The 46.5-km metro rail project has been designed to comprise two corridors.

[calculus_ask]

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/17/stor...1760780400.htm

[Kingmaker]

Originally Posted by Raj_network

I read the news some time back that Metro HQ will be coming at old Central Jail complex, Central.

Chennai metro is getting the prison land. But, I thought a metro station is coming up there

[Anniyan]

Originally Posted by Kingmaker

Chennai metro is getting the prison land. But, I thought a metro station is coming up there

Chief Minister today said in the assembly that it has been decided to allot one acre to Metro Rail and one and half acres to TNEB for the setting up of a substation which will cater to Metro Rail.

The remaining 10.73 acres of land would be given to the GH which at present functions in an area of 30 acres.

[dis.agree]

metro is supposed to be u/g near central. so would it go beneath buckingham canal too?

[Fusionist]

Originally Posted by calculus_ask

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/17/stor...1760780400.htm

is there a bigger picture ? My eye hurts looking at this

[chronicsurfer]

I am so happy; this is very good news.

I still remember how, when MRTS was launched, it was called Parakkum Rail and I was in school and dreamt of a TGV/Shikansen kind of a train running on it one day. When I finally saw what ran on it; I almost cried.

I moved to Delhi and pretty much saw the entire Phase I being constructed in West Delhi and when those trains ran, it was something to look at. Not to forget the pace at which the contruction happened.

I hope this project goes on schedule and gives Chennaiites the luxury of comfortable public transit at afforable rates.

Maybe I should just give in to my parents urge to buy a property in Chennai before the rates get any higher.

[chronicsurfer]

Originally Posted by Fusionist

Chennai Metro Rail Ltd certainly needs a better designer for start. lol

Agree. I would vote for PlaneMad! A very impressive and cool map man. I like the colour scheme.

I am happy that they have kept the line underground in Anna Salai. I can't imagine concrete pillars in the middle of Mount Road!

Man, this is a great news. The first place I came looking for is SSC to see if somebody had already created a thread. And I found one. Cheers!

[Raj_network]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/2960874.cms

[Raj_network]

Union government’s clearance has been obtained; tenders will be issued within a month or two
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The first section will be completed in the next three to three-and-half years

DMRC requested to start surveys for Phase-II
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CHENNAI: Chennai residents will be able to travel on the first section of the Chennai Metro, somewhere between Teynampet and the airport, by the end of 2011, according to E. Sreedharan, the man who is famed for completing the Delhi Metro almost three years ahead of schedule.

The managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which is a consultant to the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), said construction work on the first section would begin in July or August. The Centre’s clearance has been obtained. He expected the tenders to be issued within the next month or two. Shifting of utilities would start before that, he told reporters on the sidelines of IIT-M’s Institute Day.

The first section would be completed in the next three to three-and-half years, and both the lines would be completed in six years, Mr. Sreedharan said, detailing the timeline. “Chennai city is moving very fast,” he said. The detailed project report was submitted by the DMRC in November. In fact, the DMRC has also been requested to start surveys for Phase-II.

The Phase-I budget now stands at Rs.11,000 crore, and the Tamil Nadu Government has tied up with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation for loans. The Japanese will invest 60 per cent of the special purpose vehicle constituted for the project, the Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL). The rest would be split equally between the Central and State Governments.

The CMRL will pay back the Japanese loans in the long term. This is the same business model as followed by the DMRC, which has been posting operational profits from the day trains started running, and which will pay back its loans within the next 30 years.

Phase-I involves two standard gauge lines running across the city. As The Hindu has reported over the past two days, Line One runs from Washermanpet to the airport, through Broadway, the Central station, Anna Salai and St. Thomas Mount. The first 14 km of the line will run underground, surfacing at Teynampet for the remaining nine km. Line Two is 22 km long, with 12 km underground, starting at Chennai Central and following Poonamallee High Road, running through Egmore, Shenoy Nagar, Anna Nagar, Koyambedu, Inner Ring Road, Kathipara Junction and ending at St. Thomas Mount. There will be facilities for interchange with the suburban railway at Chennai Central, St. Thomas Mount and Alandur.

The first section where construction will be taken up has not yet been identified, but will lie on the elevated portion of Line One, Mr. Sreedharan said.

He wants the Chennai Metro to best its Delhi counterpart in one respect. While the Delhi Metro was eager to partner with the IIT-Roorkee and Delhi, especially in seismic analysis and geotechnology, the terms they dictated were unacceptable.

Mr. Sreedharan requested the IIT-Madras to partner the Chennai Metro, without looking on it as a business venture. IIT-M Director M.S. Ananth agreed to the request. The areas where the institute could contribute its expertise included tunnel construction, civil engineering, instrumentation, soil behaviour analysis, groundwater table management and the air-conditioning and ventilation of the tunnels, Mr. Sreedharan said.

http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/18/stor...1860651200.htm

[vijayvmail]

The Hindu article specifies that the metro will be Standard gauge.

What is the logic behind opting for a standard gauge (blore and hy'bad are also doing the same) when the rest of Indian railways is in broad gauge. Already there were lot of problems having three different gauges (broad, meter and narrow) across the country and that's why they start 'Project Unigauge' and started converted everything into broad gauge. Now again there's a discrepancy.

Won't this isolate the metro from the rest of the rail system. So, there's no possibilty of introducing new services in future, say arakonam to airport or Chengalpet to Washermanpet. Why not keep all options open? Are they planning to have multi-gauge trains? That seems so unlikely.

Delhi metro is broad gauge and it does have underground and elevated sections, has nice comfortable rolling stock. so, what's the problem?

[PlaneMad]

some questions for you, does the delhi metro plan to run emu's on its track? or is this metro rolling stock compatible with the platforms for emu's and other IR trains? so what exactly has the dmrc achieved by using bg?

IR sytem is a country wide rail network and it makes sense to have a single guage for connectivity, but when it comes to urban rail systems, it is made almost entirely for the city population to commute within the city, so there is no point having a direct train from teynampet to gobichettipalayam

[vijayvmail]

Originally Posted by PlaneMad

some questions for you, does the delhi metro plan to run emu's on its track? or is this metro rolling stock compatible with the platforms for emu's and other IR trains? so what exactly has the dmrc achieved by using bg?

IR sytem is a country wide rail network and it makes sense to have a single guage for connectivity, but when it comes to urban rail systems, it is made almost entirely for the city population to commute within the city, so there is no point having a direct train from teynampet to gobichettipalayam

I read through some sites. These are some important points put forward:
1. Standard gauge is the norm for metros across the world. So, this makes it easy for railways to import good coaches and spare parts. Else they've to manufacture it here at higher cost. Some people have opposed this saying that it is better to produce coaches here than importing them.
2. Delhi metro opted for Broad gauge with the argument that it can be integrated with rest of the rail lines.
3. Broad gauge capacity is more, so more people can be transaported.
4. But std. gauge makes it easier to construct sharper curves.
5. Std. fire safety guidelines state that people should be able to evacuate stations within 6 minutes. his will be easier if less people are there as in Std. gauge coaches. If it is broad gauge, they've to spend more to make stations more people firendly.
6. similarly broad gauge seems to require more power for traction and A/c due to higher capacity.

End of the day, everything seems to come to cost. Apparently there were lots of arguments on this during Delhi metro construction. But broad gauge won there. But everywhere else std. gauge has won.

It is specified that the detailed project report of chennai metro has the reasons for selecting the Standard gauge. It'll be better if we can see that.

http://www.chennaimetrorail.gov.in/t...ject_Brief.pdf (Check out page 5)

This link explains the merits/demerits of both gauges. The comments gives greater insights. Users have explained how there is technology available to negotiate similar curves using broad gauge.
http://nitawriter.wordpress.com/2007...o-which-gauge/

Basically we should not run long distance trains inthe metro tracks, but we have sub-urban routes along the existing main lines. We can always have alternate routes within the city by combining the main lines and the metro lines. Why not a route from Perambur to Velachery - main line from Perambur, metro from anna nagar to Mount and then MRTS from mount to Velachery? Just like different bus routes. Decades from now, we'll have more metro lines too.

[Sridhar]

BG did not add capacity to Delhi Metro. In fact, since there were no BG-specific coach designs, the supplier merely attached an SG coach on top of a BG bogie. The Delhi Metro coaches are identical to some of the Hong Kong Metro coaches, except that they are on BG and SG respectively. The capacity argument is bogus.

The interoperability argument is bogus too, since IR and Delhi Metro's signalling systems are incompatible, so the trains cannot really run on each others' lines. Delhi Metro coaches have been transported by rail from the port to Delhi, but they could just as easily have been transported on flat-bed cars, at similar cost.

Very few metros around the world actually interconnect with other systems. The reason is that it is much more efficient (and has more capacity) to run trains at a high frequency on a linear route, and coupled with good interchange facilities (e.g. island platforms with two lines on either side), allow for a good multi-modal transportation system.

The reason Delhi Metro was forced to choose BG by the Railways Ministry (remember that it was not its choice, its first choice was for SG) was the desire on the part of the Railways Ministry to retain control. By law, any BG line comes under the purview of the Railways Act, whereas any line within a city that has a SG or a narrower gauge is governed by the Tramways Act and is hence technically free of Indian Railways control.

Turf battles, rather than technical reasons, led to the choice of BG for Delhi and that is the reason why Sreedharan is so fervently arguing for SG in other cities (to free them from the bureaucracy that the Railways Ministry brings in). Mumbai and Bangalore have already started construction of SG metro lines. Hyderabad has also opted for SG. I see no reason why Chennai should not do the same. Perhaps it even makes sense to eventually convert MRTS to SG and hand that line to the Chennai Metro Rail Corporation. Or maybe retain it as BG, but hand it to CMRC anyway.

[ramvaradan]

Good points made. I hope Sreedharan can muster up some support to do the right thing ..

Btw, in the news what I see is 2 different terminologies :-

section 1
phase 1

Sreedharan has promised that the section 1 will be ready in 3.5 yrs .. Does that mean Section 1 is a sub-part of the Phase 1 .. If so, which section
is it ? the eastern line or the western or any part-thereof ?

We should probably take that news quote and save it somewhere .. so we don't argue later who said what/when Lets see how the deadlines are respected. Chennai is a new terrain for them .. it inspires the inspired to under-perform

[ramvaradan]

deleted repeat post

[PlaneMad]

Originally Posted by ramvaradan

Good points made. I hope Sreedharan can muster up some support to do the right thing ..

Btw, in the news what I see is 2 different terminologies :-

section 1
phase 1

Sreedharan has promised that the section 1 will be ready in 3.5 yrs .. Does that mean Section 1 is a sub-part of the Phase 1 .. If so, which section
is it ? the eastern line or the western or any part-thereof ?

We should probably take that news quote and save it somewhere .. so we don't argue later who said what/when Lets see how the deadlines are respected. Chennai is a new terrain for them .. it inspires the inspired to under-perform

Between Teynampet and Airport. Its there on wikipedia in case you forget http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chennai_Metro#Construction