From procuring additional six-coach trains to better stations, Chennai Metro Rail Ltd.’s (CMRL) phase I project is likely to go through a major upgrade to cater to future demand, at a cost of ₹2,800 crore.
The CMRL has hired a consultant for doing a study on buying extra coaches as the number of persons travelling in trains increased in recent times and on an average, about 2.5 lakh passengers use the system now.
“We need to plan for future demand and hence we began the preparatory work. The consultant presented an initial report which suggested that we need about 168 coaches or 28 six-coach trains in the near future for phase I project. Since we are procuring more trains, we need to upgrade the facilities like signalling system and platform screen doors along with it. This apart, the stations will go through some modifications to accommodate the six-coach trains. We will present it to the State government and take it forward,” an official of the CMRL said.
Discussions on funding
The CMRL is in talks with an international bank to fund the project, another official said. “We will have to get approval from the State government and the Centre for this as well,” he said.
The phase I project work was started more than a decade ago with a budget of ₹14,600 crore and the work was finished in a phased manner, with the final section from AG-DMS to Washermanpet being opened to public in 2019.
From about 10,000 passengers a day then, the patronage has risen to over 2.5 lakh a day now. But sources said this fell short of the projected ridership of over 7 lakh a day.
