Metro extension line final inspection likely next week

The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) is likely to inspect the phase I extension project of the Chennai Metro Rail next week, without whose approval the 9-km Washermenpet-Wimco Nagar stretch cannot be commissioned.

According to sources in Chennai Metro Rail Ltd. (CMRL), the inspection may be held on January 31, February 1 and 2. A team from CMRS visit the city on January 25 to get an introduction of the phase I extension project and then subsequently take up full-fledged inspection of the line.

Scheduled to be completed last year, work on the ₹3,770-crore phase I extension project has been delayed because of the lockdown. The CMRS team will walk through the stations, viaduct and tunnels and sift through documents containing the technical specification of this project for three days. It will check various measurements of the station, walkway, tracks, the functioning of tunnel ventilation system and overhead equipment, sources said.

“Apart from primarily inspecting the safety parameters, they will examine if the passenger information display system, platform screen doors and passenger emergency telephone are working fine,” a source said.

In the past, CMRS had raised issues after inspection and accorded final approval after corrective measures were taken.

Although considerable civil work is yet to be completed in stations, officials said it would be finished soon.