Chennai Metro Rail began demolition of a section of the flyover at the Royapettah High Road-Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai junction on Monday (January 22, 2024) evening, to build an underground station for the phase II project.
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The underground station, Dr. Radhakrishnan Salai station, falls in corridor 3 (Madhavaram to SIPCOT via Mylapore) of the 116 km project. As the flyover’s foundation is located in the same spot where the station has been planned, part of the flyover (in the direction of Royapettah) is being razed.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), while the demolition will be over in one or two months, traffic diversions will continue till the station construction is completed. The depth of the underground station is about 15-18 metres and it will have two entry/exit points for commuters.
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“The contractors will take about three years to construct the underground station. Then we will carry out the reconstruction of the flyover and subsequently, open it for public use. The entire area has been covered and we are executing it carefully with precautionary measures to avoid any incident,” an official said.
Under the ₹61,843 crore phase II project, the other flyover which will be partly brought down in the near future, is the one at Adyar. This is also to build an underground station, the Adyar Junction statio, for corridor 3 of the project.
The construction of two other corridors planned for this project has been underway for many months now — Corridor 4 (Light House to Poonamallee) and Corridor 5 (Madhavaram to Sholinganallur).