The two underground stretches of the Chennai Metro Rail — from Nehru Park to Chennai Central and Saidapet to AG-DMS — are likely to be inaugurated on Friday, sources said.
The function will take place at the Chennai Egmore Metro Rail station at 9 a.m., sources said. “The Nehru Park-Central stretch will be inaugurated at this station; and the Saidapet-AG-DMS stretch will be inaugurated too, through video conferencing. Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan and other Ministers are likely to participate in the event,” an official said.
Arrangements for setting up the stage for the event and other facilities have begun, sources added.
Minister for Industries M.C. Sampath visited the Chennai Egmore Metro Rail station on Tuesday evening and supervised the arrangements.
The 2.7-km stretch from Nehru Park to Central will run through three stations —Nehru Park, Egmore and Central.
The Nehru Park station has been operational for a year now, when it was opened as part of the underground stretch from Thirumangalam to Nehru Park.
The other stretch from Saidapet to AG-DMS covers 4 km, with stations including Saidapet, Nandanam, Teynampet and AG-DMS.
The opening of these two stretches means commuters can take a direct ride from Central to the airport and also AG-DMS to the airport, thus saving time to a great extent; commuters need not change trains at the Alandur Metro Rail station. Sources said it may take around 45 minutes to travel from Central to the airport, a distance of about 25 km. Similarly, a distance of 15 km from AG-DMS to the airport may be covered in about 35 minutes.
Though the opening is in a few days, sources said there is still some civil work left to be completed.
