At 115 feet below the ground, Thirumayilai Metro station will be the last to be opened in 2028

With four levels, the Thirumayilai Metro station will have one concourse and three platforms and connect four stretches under Chennai Metro’s Phase II project

Work in progress at the Kutchery Road station, which is on the Light House-Thirumayilai line of Chennai Metro Rail. | Photo Credit: M. SRINATH

Any guesses as to which will be the most challenging station to be built in Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.’s (CMRL) phase II project and the last one to get ready as well? At 115 feet below the ground with four levels — one concourse and three platforms — Thirumayilai station will be the last one to get ready in 2028 in the much-anticipated ₹61,843 crore phase II project.

Four stretches in which Thirumayilai figures as one of the stations —Panagal Park to Thirumayilai, Thirumayilai to Light House, Thousand Lights to Thirumayilai and Greenways Road to Thirumayilai — will be last stretches to be opened in 2028.

Only recently the contract for building the Thirumayilai station has been awarded and hence it was possible to open this station and connected stretches after five years, the officials said.

It would be a challenge to construct this station as the road space was narrow and geological conditions were tough. “Though work is taking off in all corridors, the elevated stretch will see operations beginning 2025 and will end by 2027. And the underground operations along these four stretches will see the end of phase II operations the following year,” an official said.

Thirumayilai is one of the major stations and landmarks in Metro Rail’s phase II project sprawling over an area of 4,854.4 sq. m., connecting MRTS station, MTC bus stop and will be located underneath the junction connecting Luz and the Canal Bank Road in Mylapore. Unlike most other stations in the phase II with just two entry/exit points, this station alone will have five entry/exit points.

In the phase II project with three corridors — Madhavaram to SIPCOT (corridor 3), Light House to Poonamallee (corridor 4) and Madhavaram to Sholinganallur (corridor 5) — the Thirumayilai station links corridor 3 and corridor 4. The corridor 3 trains run as stacked tunnels, with one track located 17 metres below the ground (first level platform- 1) and another 35 metres below (third level platform- 3). The corridor 4 trains will be operated in parallel tunnels ( second level platform - 2) that will be built in between platform 1 and 3.