The Chennai Corporation will spend Rs. 50 crore on improving civic infrastructure in the vicinity of eight Metro stations.
The stations on the stretch between Koyambedu and St. Thomas Mount are likely to be operational by December 2013. The Chennai Corporation has completed work on identifying civic infrastructure requirements near the proposed Metro stations.
Based on a report prepared by CMRL, a few months ago, the civic body had directed officials of corporation zones in Anna Nagar, Adyar, Kodambakkam, Teynampet and Royapuram to study the deficiencies in areas within a radius of 500 metres of a proposed Metro station.
The first eight stations expected to be operational are Koyambedu, CMBT, Arumbakkam, Vadapalani, Ashok Nagar-KK Nagar, SIDCO, Alandur and St. Thomas Mount.
The Chennai Corporation has asked CMRL to shoulder the responsibility of funding a portion of the Rs. 50-crore budget for the first eight stations. CMRL has been stressing on speeding up work to create adequate civic infrastructure such as roads, bus shelters, parking lots including multi-level facilities, streetlights, signboards, street furniture and stormwater drains near the eight stations.
The Chennai Metro Rail project has two corridors — Washermenpet to airport and Chennai Central to St. Thomas Mount.
Portions of the metro alignment on Corridor-I, between Washermenpet and Saidapet, and on Corridor-II, between Central and Tirumangalam, run as underground tunnels. Of the 36 upcoming Metro stations, 20 would be underground.
The civic body has prepared a list of plots near the upcoming stations for creation of parking lots.
In the meetings held by CMRL with Chennai Corporation officials, the poor civic infrastructure around MRTS stations between Chennai Beach and Velachery was highlighted.
The lack of facilities continues to hinder optimum use of the facility. Civic body officials said they were taking efforts to prevent a similar situation with metro rail.
